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EDUCATION FOR 
SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 



EDUCATION FOR 
SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

A STUDY IN THE SOCIAL 
RELATIONS OF EDUCATION 



BY 

IRVING KING, Ph.D. 

school of education, the state university of iowa 

author of 

psychology of child development," " the developme* 

religion: a study in social psychology," 

"the social aspects of education" 




D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
NEW YORK CHICAGO 



vV 



Copyright, 1Q13, by 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 



\ 



/Vj ©CI.A3473«3 






PREFACE 

In writing the pages which follow the author has 
had in mind not so much the interests of the educa- 
tional specialist as the practical needs of busy teachers 
and parents. He has attempted to present, in simple 
language, and largely through the medium of illus- 
tration, a social view of education which is coming 
more and more to prevail. He has attempted to 
show, concretely, various ways in which the average 
teacher and parent may contribute something toward 
the realization of the ideal of social efficiency as 
the goal of our educational enterprise. 

Let not the reader lose his perspective as he finds 
the social point of view constantly dwelt upon in 
these pages. In emphasizing the social meanings the 
author has not been unmindful that education has 
other important meanings and values. These are, 
in a sense, subordinate to the social values, and, in 
any case, they have received their share of attention 
elsewhere. It seems legitimate, therefore, to pass 
them by in this discussion. 

The author gratefully acknowledges his indebted- 
ness to Mr. Walter R. Miles, a graduate student in 

the State University of Iowa, for his generous con- 

v 



vi PREFACE 

tribution to Chapter XVI of the account of his per- 
sonal experience in organizing a "Social Center" in a 
small country town, and to The National Congress 
of Mothers, for permission to reprint in Chapter V 
a part oi a paper written originally for that- organi- 
zation and published in Problems of Parents. 

Iowa e'i rv, January I, 1913. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Social Origin and Function of Edu- 
cation ...... i 

II. The Social Aim of Education . . n 

III. The Rural School and the Rural Com- 

munity 21 

IV. Adapting the Country School to Country 

Needs 43 

V. The Character-Forming Possibilities of 

Home Life ..... 71 

VI. The Cooperation of School and Com- 

munity 90 

VII. Play as a Factor in Social Efficiency 109 

VIII. The Social Basis of School Incentives 123 

IX. The Opportunity Afforded by the In- 
ternal Life of the School . 138 
X. School Government, an Opportunity for 

Social Training . . . . 158 

XL The Social Ideal in the Curriculum . 177 

XII. The Vocational Interest and Social Ef- 
ficiency ..... 199 

XIII. Vocational Guidance, an Aid to Social 

Efficiency 219 

XIV. The Method of Instruction as Determined 

by the Social Ideal . . . 232 

XV. The Character-Forming Influence of 

Group- Work 252 

XVI. The School as a Social Center . . 262 

XVII. The School and Social Progress , , 280 

vii 



Education 
For Social Efficiency 



CHAPTER I 

THE SOCIAL ORIGIN AND FUNCTION OF 
EDUCATION 

Education a Social Process. — The abstract statement 
that education is a social process, a social enterprise, 
will gain easy assent, but so complex are the currents 
of the modern world that it may be lost sight of as 
a practical truth. The social relations of education 
are so many-sided and so important that they may, 
for that very reason, be unappreciated, as one may 
fail to see the forest for the trees. 

Even in its very earliest forms education was a 
social undertaking. The primitive tribes of to-day 
illustrate this fact in their methods of training their 
children. Indeed we may get important light upon 
the basic social principles of education by turning 
for a brief space to consider these beginnings, or at 
least these simpler stages of the education process. 

The Beginnings of Education. — Some sort of child- 
training all savage tribes have, partly informal, and 
partly directed by conscious purpose. Crude though 
their culture may be they always have something 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

which they must needs impart to their children, if 
the latter are to become efficient members of the 
adult society. In fact the very continuance of the 
tribe upon the human level requires that the children 
should receive and learn to profit by the experience 
of their parents. 

Since the survival of the primitive group depends 
upon the educability of its children it would not be 
strange if the capacity both to teach and to learn were 
bred into the human race by natural selection. The 
groups which exhibited some slight tendency along 
these lines would have an advantage over the groups 
which had it not, and they would be the ones to sur- 
vive. As for the very beginning of education it was 
probably quite without any definite purpose on the 
part of the elders to instruct. It depended, rather, 
upon a little superior imitativeness in the children. 
Not merely among savages, but among people in all 
stages of culture, it is imitativeness which lies at the 
basis of education. It is this quality which makes 
the child open and receptive to the experience of his 
elders. The formal agencies of instruction are but 
specializations of social activity which render the 
imitation of certain important elements of a people's 
culture less open to chance; in other words, the for- 
mal means supplement, at certain points only, the 
action of undirected imitation. 

The Place of Imitation. — Many observers tell us of 
the great imitativeness of the children of the primi- 
tive races. This readiness to copy everything seen 
is apparently the main method of learning among the 
Baganda, an African people. In Roscoe's careful 
study of these tribes no mention is made of any for- 

2 



ORIGIN AND FUNCTION 

mal attempts to teach the children anything but to 
count. The simple daily intercourse of the children 
with the rest of the community is probably the main 
avenue of their learning. As to their power to imi- 
tate Roscoe says they "may be seen making toy 
guns after the pattern of those used by their fathers. 
Those toy guns are so well made that, when the trig- 
gers are pulled, they make a sharp report. Bicycles 
have been cleverly imitated by boys, with wheels and 
spokes made of reeds. Once an idea has been pre- 
sented to them they are quick to seize it, and, with 
but a few tools and the common materials around 
them, to turn out the most cunningly devised 
articles." Dudley Kidd, writing of the Kafirs, 
says: "Faculties, such as cunning and imitation, 
seem to be developed in black children at an even 
earlier age than in the case of white children. 
No farmer's boy in England could make such excel- 
lent bird-traps at the age of three as the Kafir child 
can." 

Much of the material culture of his tribe the sav- 
age child can thus pick up by mere contact with those 
older than himself. He sees and participates daily in 
almost every phase of the tribe's economic and social 
life. There is nothing remote or unusual about any- 
thing. It is all there before him and he can try his 
hand at it as he pleases. The value of all the tribal 
knowledge and skill is also immediately apparent. 
Everything he learns fits in directly with the life he 
leads day by day. Among the Kafirs "the smallest 
children are taught to be polite, and this constitutes 
their first lesson. Obedience to parents hardly needs 
to be taught, for the children notice how everyone 

3 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

in the kraal is instinctively obedient to the old 
men; the children catch this spirit without know- 
ing it." 

The Beginnings of Formal Instruction. — But, impor- 
tant as imitation is, it is generally supplemented by 
some formal instruction, even in barbarous societies. 
The religious rites and the myths are usually too com- 
plex to be acquired and understood through imitation 
alone. 

Among some of the Australian natives it is said 
that "the old men in their leisure time instructed 
the younger ones in the laws of the tribe, impressing 
on them modesty of behavior and propriety of con- 
duct, as they understood it, and pointing out to them 
the heinousness of certain crimes." Familiar social 
communication within the family and neighborhood 
was not only the first and simplest avenue of formal 
education: it has remained, in all ages and in all 
stages of culture, one of its most important means. 
The more formal agencies have been but special de- 
velopments from this broad matrix of social inter- 
course. Social intercourse gives the setting, the back- 
ground, and determines the relationships of the for- 
mal agencies. It fills in the gaps and makes up the 
deficiencies of that type of instruction. 

The Function of Formal Instruction. — .Formal educa- 
tion, neither in the beginning, nor ever, for that mat- 
ter, has been concerned with imparting to the child 
all the culture of his people. It has centered, rather, 
around certain customs and religious beliefs, that 
seemed too important to be left to chance. It was 
and is in the daily life in the group, however, that the 
child gained a living appreciation of what he re- 

4 



ORIGIN AND FUNCTION 

ceived through formal instruction, if, indeed, the lat- 
ter was to have any meaning at all. 

When formal instruction is given to the savage 
child it is usually an undertaking which occupies the 
attention and energy of the whole tribe. The initia- 
tion ceremonies, common among most barbarous 
peoples, represent the beginnings of schooling, and 
they are of especial interest to us in this connection, 
because they are so clearly social undertakings. The 
initiation ceremonies constitute the course of instruc- 
tion given the savage boy as he approaches maturity. 
By them he is prepared for the duties of manhood, 
which consist, not merely in his being able to take 
care of himself, but also in his being a worthy mem- 
ber of the tribe and sharing in the various obligations 
it imposes upon all adult members. 

These ceremonies are usually performed at some 
stated time of the year and may continue for weeks 
or even months. All the older members of the com- 
munity are the teachers. The whole tribe unites in 
the important social function of testing and teaching 
its boys. This is strikingly illustrated by the elabo- 
rate ceremonials of the aborigines of Australia. At 
these times the old men set a time, take the boys of 
proper age, and put them through various mental 
and physical tests, in addition to instructing them in 
all the legends and customs of their people. The en- 
durance of the boys is tested in many trying ways, 
such as going for days without food, undergoing 
severe physical pain, to see whether they have suffi- 
cient hardihood and self-control to be admitted to 
the society of adults and bear their share of the 
responsibilities of tribal life. No special class in the 

5 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

community is set apart as teachers, unless it be the 
oldest men. Literally the whole social group takes a 
hand in the instruction. 

The Aim of Primitive Education. — One acute student 
of the primitive races says : "The educational sys- 
tem of the savage was designed to secure the solidar- 
ity of the group, not to convey a body of exact knowl- 
edge. The formal instruction was mainly moral; the 
occupational practice was picked up informally. The 
food regulations of the Australians are a striking 
example of the thoroughness with which moral in- 
structions were imparted." 

It is manifestly of supreme importance that a prim- 
itive tribe should form a well-knit collective life, 
bound together by common customs and common in- 
terests. Likewise it should be composed of men and 
women able to endure privation and hardship, and 
loyal under all circumstances to the interests of the 
whole group. Consequently in large part the initia- 
tion ceremonies are devoted to impressing upon the 
youths the sanctity of tribal custom, and in inspiring 
in them a profound respect for the older men and 
women as representatives of the social life. Respect 
for the old men is illustrated by the following words 
of Spencer and Gillen, with reference to the Central 
Australians: "It may be noted here that the defer- 
ence paid to the old men during the ceremonies of 
examining the churinga [sacred objects] is most 
marked; no young man thinks of speaking unless he 
be first addressed by one of the older men, and then 
he listens solemnly to all that the latter tells him . . . 
The old man, just referred to, was especially looked 
up to as an oknirdbata, or great instructor, a term 

6 



ORIGIN AND FUNCTION 

which is only applied, as in this case, to men who 
are not only old, but learned in all the customs and 
traditions of the tribe, and whose influence is well 
seen at the ceremonies — where the greatest deference 
is paid them. A man may be old, very old, indeed, 
but yet never attain to the rank of oknirabata." 

Schools as a Social Division of Labor. — The develop- 
ment of formal agencies of instruction, the begin- 
nings of which we have pointed out in the initia- 
tion rites of savage tribes, may be regarded as one of 
the many divisions of labor which become needful 
as society develops from the primitive to the civilized 
level. The school, as an institution, and teaching, 
as a profession, are but phases of the inevitable 
growth in complexity of a progressive social or- 
ganism. 

Education and Evolution. — Education has been, from 
the beginning, a social necessity, so thoroughly 
grounded in human need as to be almost, if not en- 
tirely, instinctive in its origin. Its development has 
been closely associated with the changes which we 
call, for want of a better term, social progress. In- 
deed, were it not for the educability of the child, and 
were it not for the readiness of the adult to instruct 
him, progress of any sort would be infinitely slow, 
if not altogether impossible. It has often been 
pointed out that the development of conscious, intelli- 
gent life has wrought a radical change in the char- 
acter and method of evolution. Through all the un- 
told ages lying back of the human race, progress was 
inconceivably slow. To our limited range of vision and 
to our still more limited understanding of the under- 
lying causes of development, the whole course of the 

7 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

development of living forms on our planet seems to 
have been little better than a blind struggle. Of 
course we may feel that, underneath it all, there has 
been an intelligent purpose, and that this purpose has 
wrought order out of chaos, has brought up the 
higher from the lower, and led all forward to the 
working out of some high plan. Whatever our 
philosophy of life and its development may be, we 
at least can see that the steps forward in the lower 
orders of life have been by most minute gradations, 
and that every point gained was accomplished with 
a prodigal wastefulness, both of time and of life 
itself. 

In striking contrast with these processes by which 
that which was worth while was preserved in the 
plant and in the animal, stands the course of human 
development. Man, equipped with at least a clearer 
self-consciousness than the brute world, and certainly 
with a power of choice and a capacity to utilize his 
environment far beyond that of any form beneath 
him, has become more and more a positive agent in 
the evolutionary process. To be sure he is still sub- 
ject in very definite ways to the natural forces which 
produced him. There are limitations to his control 
which will probably always continue to operate. But, 
even though he cannot take everything into his own 
hands, he can do something, and the story of human 
progress, as we know it, is largely the story of what 
man can accomplish by even slightly modifying the 
action of natural forces. Slowly but surely the physi- 
cal environment has been made over, and the world 
has been subdued. The forces of nature that once 
terrorized and afflicted, while not entirely mastered, 

8 



ORIGIN AND FUNCTION 

have at least been made to minister to his comfort. 

A variety of factors have cooperated to make these 
things possible. Among them have been a superior 
capacity of memory and a corresponding ability to 
compare the results of experience, and to profit by 
them. Each individual now has, on the whole, done 
comparatively little, but there is always the possi- 
bility that the little that he is able to do will be pre- 
served and that others may add their little to it, 
consciously, purposely, and not blindly. The results 
of experience, instead of being wasted altogether, or 
accumulating by infinitely slow gradations through 
natural selection, may thus gather and become avail- 
able with comparative rapidity. When it seems to 
us that the majority of men are blind and that their 
behavior is guided by impulse rather than by wise 
understanding, we can reassure ourselves by the re- 
flection that even thus the period of time covered by 
the human race is but a day in comparison with the 
unmeasured ages which have preceded. 

The Method of Education. — Halting though man's 
advance seems to be, it has been rapid in comparison 
with the progress of life on pre-human stages. In 
a large and real sense education is the instrument 
which has made this possible. It is the agency 
through which conscious purpose and choice have 
operated toward progress. The means by which this 
has been accomplished in times past have been the giv- 
ing to each child, as far as possible, the experience of 
adult society. In this way each generation presum- 
ably starts off with approximately the same equipment 
as the previous ones. In the course of its further 
growth it may possibly learn more, and thus, little by 
2 g 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

little, the fund of culture grows. It is only a part 
of the business of education, however, to assist in 
the acquisition of knowledge. It has always at- 
tempted also to train, to discipline the child, to culti- 
vate in him capacity and power. 

The method of accomplishing these latter ends, 
however, is far less perfectly worked out than that 
of instruction in the lore of the past. The develop- 
ment of power is supposed to come through the ac- 
quisition of knowledge. But this is not necessarily the 
case. We are only beginning to appreciate the possi- 
bilities of education if it may but enlarge the scope of 
its efforts and put the development of efficiency in the 
child upon a scientific basis. 

Knowledge, discipline, efficiency, how then are they 
to be secured? What means are open to us that we 
may utilize to the best advantage the capacities which 
each new generation brings with it? These questions 
suggest a new and larger view of education. To an- 
swer them properly requires a clear appreciation of the 
many social relations and functions of the educative 
process. 



CHAPTER II 

THE SOCIAL AIM OF EDUCATION 

Tlie Social Aim. — From what has been said of edu- 
cation as a social enterprise and of its necessity as 
a means, both of maintaining existing culture and 
of promoting social progress, we may naturally con- 
clude that some sort of social end or aim should be 
at the basis of all educational endeavor. In earlier 
times this fact was only dimly appreciated, and, even 
to-day, it has scarcely descended from the realm of 
vague theory. The need, however, of a thoroughly 
concrete, practical conception of the social end of 
education is thrusting itself upon us. Already many 
and diverse forces are grappling with the problem of 
giving our children a really adequate preparation for 
modern life. There is the greatest need that the 
serious student of education should think through the 
present situation, complex though it is, and baffling 
though its tendencies are, and attempt to evaluate 
what is being done and interpret it according to some 
unifying principles. 

While it is true that direct and fearless attempts 
to meet an insistent need or solve a pressing problem 
isually precede scientific interpretations, it is neces- 
iry for reflection and interpretation to follow closely, 
these first endeavors are to bear good fruit. Re- 
ection and theory are not something apart from ac- 
ton, as we often hear. They are most necessary that 

ii 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

action may be really successful. Successful educa- 
tional work must depend, therefore, both upon deter- 
mined and energetic action and upon clear, penetrat- 
ing insight into the situations in which we work, the 
needs of these situations, and the relationships of 
these needs to the still larger problems of our modern 
social order. 

Reasons for Individualistic Ideals. — There has 
never been a time when true education did not have 
a social function and a social end. How, then, can 
we explain the individualistic conceptions of educa- 
tion which have been common in the past? Chiefly 
on the ground that the social environment in which 
children lived, and the duties which this environment 
carried with it, supplemented the methods and ideals 
of formal instruction. Considering the narrow philos- 
ophy of the school master, the product was usually 
better than might have been expected. 

It is really not strange that individualistic ideals 
should underlie much of our educational practice. 
The individual child is always before the teacher. 
His individual and peculiar difficulties are always 
claiming her attention. The teacher's immediate 
problem is to train this individual in order that he 
may, as far as possible, have good habits of speech 
and of conduct; that he may know at least a little of 
arithmetic, of geography, of history, and so forth. If 
she is a person of high ideals, she hopes, as a result of 
his school study, that he may acquire a trained eye, 
hand, and ear, a sound judgment, a love of the beau- 
tiful and the good. 

With attention centered on the problem of instruct- 
ing and training the individual pupil it is easy for 

12 



THE SOCIAL AIM OF EDUCATION 

the teacher to conceive of the goal of her work as 
the harmonious development of all the capacities of 
the pupil, or, if this be too broad a program, then 
the training of a part of his powers, so that he may 
be able to make a living for himself, or engage in 
some honorable work. 

It is not merely, however, because the attention of 
the teacher has been centered on the individual pupil 
that the educational aims of the past have tended to 
be individualistic. This point of view has largely 
dominated every phase of life. The church has often 
held the salvation of the individual soul as its ideal. 
The industrial world worshiped and still worships in- 
dividual success. Society in general idealizes the hero, 
the great man, the man of prowess, physical and in- 
tellectual, the person of superior personality. 

All this idealization of individual success came 
about, not because man was not a social being, but 
because social relations and social dependence had 
not come clearly to consciousness, because in the sim- 
pler life of the past these relations did not thrust them- 
selves upon people's attention. They were matters of 
course — they took care of themselves. The child re- 
ceived his training in social relations and duties in 
simpler and more informal ways outside the school. As 
was noted above, however, formal instruction devel- 
oped among primitive peoples to meet the deficiencies 
of informal social intercourse. It was devised as a 
means of insuring that the child should learn certain 
things which he would not be able to learn satisfac- 
torily if he were left to pick up things for himself 
by imitation and simple contact with the life that 
was going on daily about him. As culture increased 

13 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

in complexity, more and more of the burden of edu- 
cation had to be shifted to formal agencies, specifi- 
cally to the school. 

A New Point of View Needed. — Precisely this sort of 
situation is rendering it imperative to-day that these 
old individualistic conceptions of education be recon- 
sidered and that a new type of endeavor be under- 
taken by the school. 

It is clear to us to-day that none of these individual 
excellences would have any value, or, indeed, mean 
anything, except as our pupil lives and works among 
other people. Of what worth are knowledge, skill, 
culture, except as they enable him to live more effi- 
ciently among his fellow-men? His whole life is 
inevitably bound up with other people. What is good 
and wise for him must be good and wise for others. 
His welfare or success can in no wise be separated 
from that of his associates. Thus the common wel- 
fare furnishes the standard for estimating the effi- 
ciency of the educative process in each and every in- 
dividual capacity. 

Social Training of the Child. — Individual capacities 
each child has, and the object of education is to train 
them. There is no other course open to the teacher 
than to begin with this same individual pupil. He, 
with his plastic mind and muscles, is the inevitable 
raw material. The question is not shall the child be 
trained, but rather how shall he be trained. If he is 
to be an active member of society, shall he be trained 
with this object in mind, or shall the development of 
each capacity proceed as if he were a self-sufficient, 
isolated unit, living entirely unto himself? 

Live and work with other people he must, and, if 

14 



THE SOCIAL AIM OF EDUCATION 

the school does not give him suitable training, he will 
have to get it in other ways if he gets it at all. He 
may never get it, or he may get it only imperfectly. 
That is, while living with other people and working 
with them, he does so with friction and difficulty, 
not realizing either for himself or for the community 
the maximum of good. 

Social Training in Home and Neighborhood. — As we 
have stated before, the social values of education were 
in the past secured in many ways outside of school. 
Life was complex enough, it is true, and presented 
many difficult social problems, but these problems were 
largely met by man's instinctive social equipment. 
The primitive ideals of the family and of the neigh- 
borhood were in the main sufficient to meet and solve 
such problems as thrust themselves upon people's at- 
tention. In these small social groups the conception 
of social unity, and such ideals as loyalty, kindness, 
truthfulness, lawfulness, were largely instinctive. They 
have, from time immemorial, characterized such in- 
timate human associations. The family and neigh- 
borhood groups were necessary to the most elementary 
phases of social development, and no family or neigh- 
borhood could endure that did not develop as funda- 
mental instincts in its members these ideals of mutual 
helpfulness, kindness, and truthfulness. These are 
elementary qualities of human nature in all small 
groups of people the world over, both barbarous and 
civilized. They are found conspicuously in the lowest 
levels of culture, and they are found among ourselves 
in all those situations which bring us into intimate 
personal acquaintance and daily association with one 
another. Mankind's whole code of morals and theory 

15 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

of right conduct have been built up upon the basis of 
these elementary virtues of the home and the neigh- 
borhood. As long as the life of the individual was 
lived largely in these simple situations, as long as, 
there was little to carry him outside of them into far- 
reaching relationship with the world at large, he found 
in this family and neighborhood life a fairly adequate 
socializing medium. 

Recent Growth of Human Relations. — The last cen- 
tury, however, has immensely increased the reach of 
human life. Man's vocational activities have broad- 
ened in their scope. More and more has he been led 
out of the narrow, primitive relation of family and 
neighborhood and drawn into contact with larger and 
larger groups of people. This increase in the scope 
of our relationships has vastly extended the influence 
of our simplest acts. Our conduct, whether good or 
bad, to-day affects not alone the little narrow groups 
in which we live, but even people whom we may not 
know intimately, or perhaps never see at all. 

Under the influence of these conditions every type 
of industry has developed new phases and problems, 
the family shows signs of radical modification, the 
old-time neighborhood is already, in many localities, 
a thing of the past. In a word, present-day life 
throws the individual into a host of social relations 
and arouses him to a consciousness of a host of knotty 
problems that never appeared in the primitive com- 
munity or family. 

Difficulties of Social Adjustment. — While, therefore, 
the old-time society educated its children informally, 
the new social order presents such difficulties of social 
adjustment that the present-day child is scarcely able 

16 



THE SOCIAL AIM OF EDUCATION 

to fit into it, and live a really satisfactory life, unless 
these new social relations are made a more conscious 
element in his formal training. He needs, in other 
words, a distinctively social training. The social rela- 
tions and opportunities of school and neighborhood 
must be utilized to prepare him for the complex life 
he must live. And all this not merely that he may 
be more efficient as an individual in this larger life, 
better able to make his own personal way in more 
intricate surroundings, but that he may be better able 
to carry over into his broader relationships the ele- 
mentary virtues of the home and of the neighborhood. 
Indeed, more and more it becomes apparent that mod- 
ern society needs to be humanized and moralized, if it 
is to endure, just as this was needful in the simple 
primitive community. The moralization of the primi- 
tive community was accomplished without any definite 
reflective purpose. It gradually developed under the 
influence of natural selection, just because it was im- 
possible for these little groups of people to survive 
except as they were bound together by a sort of ele- 
mentary consideration for each other. Their goodness 
was as natural and instinctive as was everything else 
that pertained to their lives. 

Economic Development Precedes Social. — Modern so- 
ciety, however, is the result of a more or less definite 
conscious evolution. If it has not been guided by 
any broad, comprehensive aim, in which everyone has 
participated, it has at least been made what it is by 
a vast number of partial purposes, which are largely 
economic. The maladjustment of human energies and 
resources is in the main due to an excessive develop- 
ment along economic lines, accompanied by a great 

17 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

increase in population, without a corresponding de- 
velopment of those ideals of social relationship which, 
in the simple primitive community, coordinated and 
kept a proper balance in these other phases of life. 
In other words, the social nature of the modern man 
has not grown fast enough to keep up with his 
economic progress. The problem that confronts us 
to-day is that of extending, and, if necessary, recon- 
structing, the social ideals of a simpler social order, 
that they may dominate the life of the modern world, 
with its greatly diversified activities and the hosts of 
problems that have grown out of these multiplied and 
enlarged interests. 

The same sort of conscious purpose which has 
wrought the changes in the economic life must appear 
in the development of a social morality which is ade- 
quate to these new conditions ; a social morality which 
can unify diverse and conflicting interests and con- 
serve human welfare in the midst of the great modern 
machine of production, distribution, and consumption, 
which man himself has constructed; a social morality 
which will, in a word, save man from the monster of 
his own creation. 

Readjustment Through Education. — All of this must 
be accomplished through education, meaning by edu- 
cation the entire process by which human nature is 
trained and instructed. And this education must be 
largely wrought out through the school. The ideal 
of a social life adequate to modern conditions of liv- 
ing must take its place as an object of explicit and 
conscious training, just because it is too complex 
and difficult to attain in any other way. In fact 
such an ideal may be regarded as including all 

18 



THE SOCIAL AIM OF EDUCATION 

others. Properly interpreted it is the real ideal of all 
education. 

A Workable Social Ideal. — As we have already 
pointed out, men were not less social creatures when 
their conscious ideals in religion and in education, for 
instance, centered upon individual development and 
upon individual perfection. They were social then, 
as now, but upon a smaller scale, and the social train- 
ing, which the educational ideal did not explicitly pro- 
vide for, took care of itself. Since the life of to-day 
makes such heavy and unforeseen demands upon the 
social nature of its members, the time has come when 
a definite social conception of education must displace 
the older individualistic conceptions, a social concep- 
tion which will not be held as a bit of mere abstract 
philosophy, but which will rather react explicitly and 
constantly upon the every-day work of teaching in 
every type of school. 

Social Efficiency. — Such an ideal has already been 
formulated and is common in some form or other in 
almost all recent educational discussion. It has been 
best stated as the ideal of social efficiency. In this 
brief form, however, it is not a very intelligible nor 
a very practicable conception. It needs to be definitely 
enlarged and definitely applied. What does it mean 
to be socially efficient, and what are the means of at- 
taining that condition when once we have satisfied our- 
selves as to what it is? 

These questions cannot be answered briefly. There 
are many things to consider, many needs to evaluate, 
and many types of situations to examine. Because of 
its scope and complexity, the modern social need can- 
not be met in any simple way, or through one or a few 

19 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

pet schemes or devices. If it is to be adequately met it 
must be through a complete reconstruction and utili- 
zation of every element and factor in the educational 
process. 

Definition of the Ideal. — It is the object of the chap- 
ters which follow to define and render workable the 
ideal of social efficiency, to present a number of con- 
crete situations with their manifest needs, and to state, 
in a preliminary way, at least, what social efficiency 
in these situations means, as well as the ways in which 
it is being accomplished, and may be still better ac- 
complished. 



CHAPTER III 

THE RURAL SCHOOL AND THE RURAL 
COMMUNITY 

The Rural School Problem. — Following our plan of 
defining the social end of education, and of presenting 
it as a concrete and workable ideal for the practical 
teacher we shall take up first the situation and the 
problem presented by the rural school and the rural 
community. In many respects this is the best point at 
which to begin our study. It is the logical beginning, 
because the rural school, while not the original Ameri- 
can educative institution, nevertheless does represent 
the type from which much of present-day American 
education has developed. This is especially true of 
those phases which have sprung up in the great Cen- 
tral and Western sections of the country. In all these 
regions the rural school was long the predominant 
type, and, if it did not furnish altogether the pattern 
on which the city school was built, it at least furnished 
a set of ideals of the relation of the school to the com- 
munity, which were carried over into the city and 
have persisted in men's minds to this day, even though 
they may have ceased to exist in real life. 

The rural situation is also a good place to begin 
our study, because the social needs there existing are 
simple and uncomplicated by puzzling variations and 
counter-currents. Many of the obstacles to the reali- 

21 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

zation of the social ideal, which are present in the 
great modern city, with its mixture of races, its di- 
versity of interests, its problems of social adjustment, 
and its conflicting ideals, are not to be found in the 
country; or, if found there, are less marked. The 
country problem is simple, in that the factors which 
enter into it may be more easily unraveled and the 
means of solution are much more readily available 
than in the city. 

But the country problem is also sufficiently diffi- 
cult. Elementary and unentangled though the forces 
operating may be, there is an inertia about the country 
that renders our rural school problem quite as grave 
and as difficult, though in another way, as the city 
school problem. 

Let us bear in mind that it is not the whole of the 
rural problem that we are here to consider, although 
that will be indirectly involved. We are rather con- 
cerned to see what is being done and what must be 
done still further that the rural school may actually 
realize the social ideal in country boys and girls. In 
dealing with this question one should clearly see what 
the elements are, the things which constitute social 
efficiency in the country. 

The Social Ideal in the Country. — In briefest terms 
the rural school, if it is to be governed by social 
ideals, must be an exponent of the needs of rural life. 
In times past and even to-day, in too many localities, 
the main inducement held out to boys in the country 
to secure an education is that they may go to college 
or prepare for some profession. These are not un- 
worthy ends to strive for, but it is unfortunate that 
they should be conceived as the main ends of an edu- 

22 



RURAL SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY 

cation. As a matter of fact, only a small proportion 
of boys and girls, either in city or country, do go 
to college, and, if the training they receive in school 
is planned with reference to the college as a goal, it 
means that much of their time and effort is being 
wasted through being expended in lines not directly 
related to their real life-needs. Those country chil- 
dren who wish to prepare for college must have the 
opportunity to do so, but the resources of the country 
high school should not be devoted entirely, or even 
largely, to the interests of this small class. 

Adaptation to Country Needs. — As one writer on 
rural education says : * "One of the great aims of sec- 
ondary education in any locality should be to provide 
a program of studies which shall take into considera- 
tion the natural aptitudes, inclinations, needs, and des- 
tiny of the boys and girls of the section. In addition, 
a type of education must be established which shall 
react upon the community and the region in which the 
school is located in such a way as to be a source of 
strength and a means of upbuilding the whole district 
tributary to it. If education is to be universal, not 
only must the needs of the boys and girls be taken 
into consideration and provided for, but the industries 
of the community in which the school is located must 
be represented in its program of studies." 

The school must, furthermore, be in hearty sympa- 
thy with these needs, and must see in them opportuni- 
ties as great and as worthy as any which may inspire 
human effort and enthusiasm. Moreover, it must 

* Supt. H. A. Brown, "The Readjustment of a Rural High 
School to the Needs of the Community." U. S. Bureau of 
Education Bulletin No. 20, p. 10. 1912. 

23 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

seek to promote a type of rural life which furnishes 
scope for the best phases of man's social nature. It 
must cultivate in boys and girls the capacity to be 
efficient units in the larger social morality that is de- 
manded by modern life. 

Contrast of Pioneer Times. — The old-time rural 
school, the school of the pioneers, was in many re- 
spects closer to the community and its social needs. 
Its curriculum was narrow, but it was possibly broad 
enough for its time. The frontier community needed 
intensive and diversified formal instruction less than 
it needed a center for its social and intellectual life 
and interests. The meager curriculum of the three 
"R's" and the poor methods of instruction, as com- 
pared with our modern conceptions, did not matter 
so much. The children were surrounded by a com- 
munity and family of a sound social nature. It was, 
to all intents, the community of primitive man, in 
which, under the very eyes of the children, occurred 
daily all the types of industry and sociability needful 
in a simple community. 

Each family was almost self-sustaining. Its di- 
versified activities of clearing the ground, preparing 
the soil, planting and harvesting the crops, the prepa- 
ration of food and of clothing were all carried on in 
ways that could be easily understood and in ways that 
not merely gave the children opportunity but even 
required that they should participate in them to the 
extent of their strength and ability. All of this con- 
stituted the finest type of industrial training; in the 
first place, because it was diversified and appealed to 
a great variety of interests, and, in the second place, 
because everything done had its clear and definite 

24 



RURAL SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY 

practical value and social worth. There was small 
opportunity for any notion of unreality, or for any 
feeling of remoteness from life to enter in. It was, 
in fact, an education through life in the very fullest 
sense. With such opportunities for direct, first-hand 
contact with and participation in the satisfaction of 
elementary human needs; with such opportunities for 
free, open-air activity and for grappling with difficult 
though not insurmountable problems, the pioneer com- 
munity could well put up with a narrow range of 
school studies and with poorly trained teachers. 
Those were times when strong, self-reliant men and 
women were produced with perhaps only three months 
of school attendance in their whole lives. 

Pioneer Social Life. — But the excellence of the pio- 
neer community as a medium of education consisted 
not merely in its primitive economic life. Its social 
life was fully as important; and here the old-time 
rural school was more of a vital force. The pioneer 
community was a primitive one, also, in the sense 
that the instinctive social morality from the imme- 
morial past held sway and was altogether adequate 
as a means of adjusting such conflicts of interest as 
arose, and of interpreting life and directing conduct. 
The people lived and worked together with much the 
same interests and with little difference of social level. 
Thus, real neighborhood feeling was possible. 

Although each family might be an independent 
economic unit, there were ample opportunities for the 
development of mutual helpfulness. The neighbors 
assembled for barn-raisings and husking bees, the 
dominating spirit of which was hearty good-will and 
brotherly helpfulness. If one of the community was 
3 25 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

sick and could not get his crop planted or harvested, 
it was done as a matter of course for him by his 
neighbors without the shadow of a thought of being 
paid. It was the rule that he who had should lend 
to him who had not. In our older communities, which 
are still inhabited by the descendants of these first 
settlers, much of this fine neighborhood spirit still 
persists. Although many services are paid for to-day 
that were once rendered by community cooperation, 
the men will often gather for the old-time barn raising 
in the same spirit as their fathers. Although much 
of the dangerous work may now be avoided through 
the use of machinery, the occasion is still a genuine 
social function, an expression of old hearty neighbor- 
liness. 

The life of the early rural community in America 
was, then, a soil in which grew up and flourished all 
the basic social virtues. Not that the people were 
perfect, or not subject to evil passions, but these less 
admirable qualities were tempered by the sense of 
moral unity, with its attendant ideals of kindness, 
truthfulness, honesty, and lawfulness. 

Its Educative Character. — Just because these quali- 
ties of character were manifest in the daily life and 
intercourse of the people they were ingrained into 
the children who thereby acquired the social character 
needful in such communities. It was a social life 
limited in scope and opportunity, but it was adequate 
for the type of life then existing. On the educational 
side, in the narrower sense, the school was a real cen- 
ter of influence in the neighborhood. It was estab- 
lished by mutual consent and purpose and expressed 
the social belief in education. That the content of 

26 



RURAL SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY 

instruction was formal and narrow did not matter, 
because it was really only a supplementary agency in 
the training of the children. The school was really 
adjusted to meet the one need that participation in 
the life of the community could not conveniently sup- 
ply, namely: the rudiments of reading, writing, and 
arithmetic. 

The Old-time School and the Home. — Moreover, these 
early schools maintained an intimate relation to the 
homes. The teacher was usually a man, thoroughly 
familiar with the life of the people, one who had, 
himself, experienced many of their struggles and was 
able to do the things they did. Crude though his 
learning in books might be, he was often the intel- 
lectual head of the neighborhood; he often boarded 
around among the patrons of the school, and thus 
kept in constant touch with their social ideals and 
aspirations. His leadership of the younger genera- 
tion depended quite as much upon the fact that he 
was the physical master of the "big boys" as on the 
fact that he knew slightly more about arithmetic 
than they did. 

A Center of Social Life. — The country school-house 
itself, along with the country church, was the center 
of many of the social interests and activities of the 
neighborhood. The young people, in the absence of 
other opportunities for recreation, naturally gathered 
at the school-house and amused themselves in simple 
ways. Those were the days of the spelling matches 
and the debating clubs and literary societies. The 
older members of the community readily joined with 
the school children in these neighborhood functions, 
partly because there was little else going on to attract 

27 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

their attention, and partly because the school children 
themselves were in many cases young men and women, 
so that there was no sharp line dividing the social 
interests of the adults from the pupils of the school. 

So much for the social significance of the old-time 
education and the old-time rural school. Even 
though the preceding account of its character may 
seem to be exaggerated, it was certainly different in 
many ways from the life of the modern rural com- 
munity. If our account errs, it is probably not so 
much in over-emphasizing the social values, but rather 
in neglecting some of the less pleasant features of the 
pioneer community. These drawbacks do not detract 
from the good side of the lives of these people. Hard- 
ships, suffering, and sin do not make the good and 
the happy side of life any less real. 

Real Social Training Provided. — We have meant in 
our picture of the old rural life to show how the 
social ideal of education was fairly well provided for 
through the cooperation of the school and the com- 
munity, to point out how there was an organic rela- 
tion and sympathy between the two, and, how, as a 
result, the children received a really socialized educa- 
tion. The changes that have come over rural life 
and rural education are due to many causes, some of 
the more important of which may be mentioned, 
though we can scarcely undertake to discuss them 
here. 

Causes of Later Deterioration. — Prominent among the 
causes of the deterioration of the country was the 
rapid development of the city. The evils of city life 
were not evident at first glance nor at long range. The 
city community seemed to have certain comforts that 

28 



RURAL SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY 

the country did not possess. It afforded more diversi- 
fied types of amusement and more opportunity for 
the satisfaction of the social instincts. That these 
opportunities were less healthful and normal was 
not immediately apparent. 

A Typical Illustration. — The words of Superintend- 
ent Morrison, of New Hampshire, * written with 
special reference to New England, describe quite ac- 
curately the course of events in all the older rural 
communities the country over. He says : 

Out of the old country schools went a steady stream 
of sons and daughters who were, other things being 
equal, always the strongest of the generation, for other- 
wise they would not have gained this education. Seldom 
did they settle upon the old farm or in the home town. 
Their education had fitted them for other things. 

They became lawyers, or physicians, or clergymen, or 
schoolmasters, or business men in the cities, and the 
girls went with them, generally to be their wives. 
Their children grew up under city conditions and went 
to city schools. The unambitious, the dull, the unfor- 
tunate boys and girls of the old countryside, who could 
not get to the academy, as a class, remained behind and 
became the dominant stock. And they reproduced their 
kind for another generation, upon whom the same sort- 
ing process was carried out. Then the factory system 
seized upon the strong-limbed and restless, albeit slow- 
witted, and began to sort them out and remove them. 
Finally the Civil War came and struck down the ideal- 
ists by the wholesale, mostly boys or young men who 
had not yet reproduced themselves in a new generation. 

* Biennial Report for 1907-8. Quoted by Supt. H. A. 
Brown, op. cit., pp. 25, 26. 

29 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

Now upon a journey through rural New England you 
shall see fine old mansions, showing by their architecture 
that they date back well toward the beginning of the 
nineteenth century, and ample old homesteads with their 
capacious barns, all of them more or less in a state of 
decay. Of many, nothing but the cellar hole and an, at 
first sight, unaccountable orchard is left. These were 
the homes of a race which lived and prospered, which 
cleared the land, and built homes, and added barn to 
barn, which accumulated wealth, and gave virile expres- 
sion of itself in church, in state, and in educational in- 
stitutions. . . . But that race allowed its sons and 
daughters to be educated away from the farm and the 
country and from the State. In their place to-day we 
too often have a dwindling town, a neglected farm, a 
closed church, an abandoned schoolhouse. 

Depletion of the Country's Resources. — During the 
time that the farmer's children were being deluded 
by the glamour of the city, the resources of the farm, 
its soil, and its timbers were becoming impoverished, 
and the material return of labor was lessened. The 
products of the farm entered into larger and larger 
markets, and the machinery of distribution that de- 
veloped operated to leave most of the money profit in 
the city rather than in the country. The farmers of 
the Second and third generation may have actually 
received more for their products than did the pioneer 
farmers, but not nearly in proportion to the new 
needs that had come into the lives of them and their 
families. Consequently, the hardships of pioneer 
times gave way to a new sort of hardship which was 
now, unfortunately, coupled with discontent. In a 
word, the changed attitude in the country may be said 

30 



RURAL SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY 

to have been due to the more rapid development of 
the city. It is safe to say that the different phases of 
society must keep pace with one another in their 
changes or maladjustment will arise. Prosperity, to 
be genuine and abiding, must occur for all classes, if 
it occurs at all. One class cannot enrich itself at 
another's expense indefinitely. 

New Needs Demand Satisfaction. — With the passing 
of pioneer life many new needs and desires have de- 
veloped — desires which will cause grave social dis- 
orders unless they have some measure of satisfaction. 
The failure of the country school and the country 
social and economic life to hold its own and progres- 
sively satisfy the enlarging life that was gradually 
opening up before the people did not indicate that 
these forces were not adequate in their own time. 
They simply did not for one cause or another develop 
fast enough to meet the changed life thrust upon the 
country. When first the pull of the city began to be 
felt upon the country, the grandchildren of the 
pioneers left what seemed to them the hard, narrow 
conditions of the country, and more and more flocked 
to the city in quest of the larger opportunity, as they 
imagined, in industry, in amusement, and in culture, 
instead of seeking to work these things out in their 
own rural life. 

This defection from the country of its most enter- 
prising young people left gaps which have been filled 
up by a transient population of renters, who have 
seldom had the stability or the incentive to build up a 
neighborhood life that would bear comparison with 
that of the pioneers. Under the shifting, unsatisfac- 
tory conditions, almost every phase of the higher rural 

3 1 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

life has deteriorated. The school is no longer the 
social center of the community. Its still narrow cur- 
riculum and crude teachers are generally ill-adapted 
to the enlarged needs of the country. The child, edu- 
cated in the rural school, is less efficient socially than 
his grandfather, partly because there is no longer the 
rich neighborhood life which formerly supplemented 
the narrow training of the school, and partly because 
the school itself has not only not tried to meet new 
social demands, but has even lost touch with life as 
it is. The rural teacher is often from the city, with- 
out the slightest appreciation of country life, and 
with utterly no comprehension of its problems. It 
looks as if conditions could not have been more cun- 
ningly devised to hasten the deterioration of the 
country. The very agency that should have acted as 
a corrective, that should have studied and met the 
new needs, has become one of the influences for dis- 
integration. 

An Educational Problem. — The great problem of 
rural betterment, which now confronts the whole na- 
tion, and upon the happy solution of which the wel- 
fare of the nation depends, is in part a problem of 
education. The need is obvious, a higher grade of 
intelligence in the country population, a development 
of interests in country problems, higher ideals of 
rural life, more sociability, more opportunity for 
healthy-minded recreation in the country. To all of 
these ends the school can contribute something,- and 
it must do so if it is to realize the social ideal in the 
education which it attempts to furnish. 

We have outlined a particular situation, a situation 
which presents perfectly definite needs. The attain- 

32 



RURAL SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY 

ment of the social ideal in education demands that 
these needs be met. The problem of making socially 
efficient men and women out of present-day country 
boys and girls is, specifically, the problem of develop- 
ing in them this higher intelligence and interest in 
their own life, of securing greater efficiency in deal- 
ing with the peculiar economic problems of the coun- 
try, and, through it all, of so training these children 
in social relationships and obligations that it will make 
of them, not individual self-seekers, but members of 
a real social community, capable not merely of coop- 
erating with others for their own individual good, 
but also able to appreciate and strive for the welfare 
of the community. 

Phases of the Problem. — The social efficiency of ru- 
ral education is, in a word, dependent upon its get- 
ting into close touch with the actual needs of rural 
life. These needs are not only economic, but social 
and intellectual. As we have pointed out, people will 
not live contentedly in the country if they are forever 
deprived of social enjoyments and opportunities of 
recreation. Nor will the best boys and girls remain 
in the country if the life there starves the intellectual 
nature. To quote again: "When the boy finishes 
the high school course, if he is not one of the few 
who can go to college, he should find himself equipped 
with an interest in the problems of the farm, with 
an appreciation of the value of farm life, with a con- 
ception of the dignity of scientific agriculture as a 
profession, and with an attitude toward farm life 
which is entirely different from that of those who 
have been for four years educated away from the 
farm and the home and who have been taught that 

33 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

only with the brain can a living honorably be made. 
When farming is raised to the dignity of a profession 
by the introduction of scientific methods the trend of 
population toward the city will in some measure 
cease." * 

Signs of an Awakening. — In many parts of the coun- 
try there are signs of a vigorous awakening on the 
part of those engaged in school work. The efforts 
they are putting forth to meet the conditions which 
we have sketched are most promising, although most 
of these endeavors are so new it remains to be seen 
how far they will actually solve the problem. They 
are also necessarily somewhat sporadic, and, in the 
main, distinctly local ; but they are nevertheless worth 
studying and evaluating in a preliminary way. It is 
important that these attempts should be viewed in 
the light of a general social philosophy of education. 
While further development and extension will prob- 
ably be determined in large part by the particular op- 
portunities presented by different localities, and will 
be in the nature of directly practical movements 
rather than the outgrowth of a clear and systematic 
view of underlying principles, a grasp of the princi- 
ples is necessary as the movement becomes more wide- 
spread. Systematic efforts toward making the rural 
schools really accomplish the maximum of social effi- 
ciency will depend upon a widespread discussion and 
study of principles as well as of specific expedients. 

Cooperation of Forces Needed. — It is, moreover, gen- 
erally recognized by all who know the problem of the 
country that the country school working alone can- 
not go far toward realizing a more socially efficient 

* Supt. H. A. Brown, op. cit., p. 26. 

34 



RURAL SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY 

education. All really effective education is the result 
of a cooperation of the community and the school. 
We have viewed educational efforts of all times as 
types of social activity developed to meet needs which 
are felt generally by the community. This will be 
found to be as true of the rural community as of 
any other. No deeply penetrating improvement can 
be secured except as the country people feel the need 
and lend their hearty cooperation to the school in its 
efforts. 

The country population, as a whole, is only half- 
awakened, or is awakened only in spots. In most 
places it is unresponsive and even apathetic. It views 
with suspicion the gospel of social betterment for the 
country. A part of the educational problem is, then, 
to touch and arouse the home. Before rural condi- 
tions, socially and educationally, can be improved in 
any large sense, the rural population as a whole must 
rise up and demand improvement. Outside forces 
may make a little beginning, but the success of the 
movement as a whole is in the hands of the people 
themselves who live on the farms and draw their 
subsistence from the soil. 

The lines along which the most significant work is 
now being done may be grouped as follows : 

(i) Improvement of the rural schools themselves. 

(2) Definite attempts to develop an interest in 
country life and country problems. 

The Beginnings of the New Movement. — The begin- 
nings of the present-day impulse for a more socially 
efficient education for the country date back at least 
twenty-five years. The efforts which were first put 
forth were modeled essentially upon the relation of 

35 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

the school to the community of two generations ago. 
In fact, more or less idealized traditions of the "little 
red school-house of the olden time" have always per- 
sisted and served to keep alive in the hearts of a few 
discerning leaders the impulse to realize again the 
social possibilities of the rural school. Gradually 
the country school-house ceased to be a frequent 
neighborhood meeting-place; the patrons seldom or 
never crossed its threshold; often they did not know 
the teacher even by sight; they completely lost touch 
with the work of the school; and, worse still, they 
lost their community-interest in education through 
never meeting at the school-house to discuss it and 
other matters of neighborhood interest. 

The "Hesperia Movement." — The recent revival, as 
stated above, has been patterned after the old-time 
relationship. It was, at the first, an attempt to get 
parents and teachers together to promote the intel- 
lectual and social interests which they naturally had 
in common. The "Hesperia Movement," so-called, 
which began in a western county in Michigan, as far 
back as 1885, is an illustration which may be regarded 
as typical. Some of the country and village school 
teachers organized an association, to which the parents 
were invited, and in the programs of this association 
the interests of both classes were provided for. The 
association met at intervals in different school-houses. 
An active appreciation was awakened from the start; 
the meetings furnished a needed opportunity to the 
farmers for a social gathering-place during the win- 
ters. They served to promote the mutual acquain- 
tance of parents and teachers ; made the former more 
appreciative of the aims of the latter, and the latter 

36 



RURAL SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY 

more appreciative of the aims and interests of the 
former. Other associations were formed in the 
county, similar to this, and later in some other coun- 
ties of that state. With many variations, due to 
local conditions, the idea has spread to other states, 
but has perhaps developed nowhere with such bene- 
ficial social results as in the county and state of its 
inception. 

Means of Betterment Summarized. — President Butter- 
field, who has given one of the best accounts of the 
"Hesperia Movement," summarizes as follows * the 
means through which the rural school may be made 
a more efficient social agency in the country: 

1. Bettering the course of study by utilizing more 
fully the materials afforded by the country environ- 
ment. There is no need, for instance, that the science 
taught in these schools should be abstract and remote 
from the life of the children. The forests, fields, and 
streams, the animal life, wild and domestic, are re- 
plete with most interesting problems. 

2. Developing the social activities of the pupils. 
Affording opportunities for them to cooperate in vari- 
ous ways; for instance, in special day programs, in 
the preparation of exhibits for county fairs, improve- 
ment of school-grounds and buildings, building up of 
suitable libraries and collections of pictures. "It 
needs no argument to show the value of this sort of 
cooperation to the pupil, to the teacher, to the school, 
to the parents, and ultimately to the community as a 
whole." 

3. A more thoroughgoing and sympathetic coopera- 
tion between the school and the home. 

* In Chapters in Social Progress, Chicago, 1907. 

37 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

4. The making of the school-house a social meet- 
ing-place, a place for lectures, entertainments, social 
functions, clubs devoted to the quickening of the in- 
tellectual life, and the broadening of the outlook 
of country people in common human problems, 
as well as in those belonging specifically to the 
country. 

5. Having teachers who will be identified with 
country life and who will become leaders in the com- 
munity in all lines of social improvement. 

The "Hesperia Movement", described above, is 
good as far as it goes, but it is typical only of the 
beginning of an awakening which is occurring in 
many different forms. The recent developments, as 
yet scattering, it is true, but none the less definite, 
have followed in very large measure these general 
lines sketched above. We shall try to indicate con- 
cretely in the following chapter how schools here and 
there are seeking in these ways to secure a higher 
social efficiency in the country boys and girls. First, 
however, we may note briefly the movement toward 
consolidated schools as furnishing a general condi- 
tion favorable to a better education for the 
country. 

Consolidation of Rural Schools. — The consolidated 
country school opens the way for many lines of 
social service impossible to the small, isolated, one- 
room school. Consolidation, of course, presents the 
undesirable feature of removing from the immediate 
community the old-time center of neighborhood life. 
But, where the number of pupils is small and scat- 
tered, and where the local school has already lost its 
hold on the community, this drawback is more than 

38 



RURAL SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY 

offset by the new life and interest engendered by the 
larger school. Besides, such a consolidated school 
may, with better roads and better means of trans- 
portation, be quite as easily accessible to-day as was 
the old-time neighborhood school. 

In some states this movement toward consolida- 
tion has already gone far. In others there is great 
backwardness toward adopting it. The advantages 
of consolidated country schools do not lie in their 
being any cheaper, financially, than the separate 
schools would have been. On the contrary, they 
usually cost more, and people generally should be- 
come accustomed to the idea that they must pay more 
and more for an education that is to keep pace with 
the needs of the times. An aroused public sentiment 
in the country is usually willing to pay for what is 
manifestly needed. The consolidated school makes 
possible better teachers and better equipment, although 
both of these features might have been supplied to 
the original one-room schools. Most important of 
all, as we have said, it brings a larger number of 
children together, and thereby makes for more in- 
terest and enthusiasm in the work. 

Should Be Real Country Schools. — The consolidated 
school, however, may not, in itself, be any closer to 
the needs of the country than was the one-room 
school. It may have better teachers and a wider 
range of studies, but, instead of meeting country 
needs, it may strive to become a school of the city 
type. Such a tendency cannot be too greatly de- 
plored. What is needed is not a city graded school 
and high school in the country, but a real country 
school, based directly upon the needs of country com- 

39 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

munities. From a social point of view, more and 
more do we realize that there is no such thing as a 
general education adapted to all types and conditions 
of people. It cannot be too often reiterated that 
diversity is to be the rule of the future rather than 
uniformity, and that this diversity is based directly 
upon the diversity of social needs. The realization 
of the full social value of the consolidated school for 
the country community will thus depend upon its 
being actually situated in the country, and not in a 
village or town. When country and town unite in a 
school the town interests and ideals are bound to be 
dominant, and such a school will lure the children 
away from the country rather than educate them 
for it. 

An Illustration. — An excellent example of a school 
of the best type is afforded by the John Swaney Con- 
solidated School in Putnam County, Illinois. It is a 
high-grade country school for country children, situ- 
ated two miles from any town or village, on a twenty- 
five-acre plot, in part wooded, which was generously 
donated by a farmer. The consolidated district sup- 
porting this school is composed of fourteen sections 
of land. "The school is housed in a $12,000 two 
and one-half story brick building, containing four 
recitation rooms, two laboratories, large auditorium, 
two library and office rooms, a boys' manual training 
room, a girls' playroom, furnace room, and cloak 
room. All are lighted with gasoline gas, generated 
by a plant the reservoir of which is stored outside of 
the building. The building is heated with steam, and 
furnished with running water supplied by an air-pres- 
sure system. The building and equipment cost 

40 



RURAL SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY 

$16,000." * It was fitted up, in part, through gener- 
ous donations of people in the vicinity. The children 
are brought to the school by two wagons owned by 
the district. The grounds, naturally beautiful, have 
been still further improved by wise plans. A teach- 
ers' home and a janitor's home are also provided on 
the school-plot. 

As Foght says, it is a "school right in the heart of 
the rural community, where the child can dwell in 
close communion with nature, away from the attrac- 
tions and allurements of the city. In this sylvan re- 
treat, fitted with everything essential for school work, 
the boys and girls of Magnolia Township learn to 
know nature and to love it.f 

The high school course furnished by the John 
Swaney School is definitely adjusted to furnish train- 
ing in both college preparatory subjects and in agri- 
culture, manual training, and household arts. A state 
agriculture experiment station is installed on a six- 
acre plot adjoining the campus, where the pupils 
have the privilege of observing the methods and of 
profiting by the results. 

A Square Deal for Country Children. — Of a truth, as 
Foght says, "the farm youth has not had a square deal. 
And the fundamental cause of it all is that our rural 
population does not spend enough money on the edu- 
cation of their boys and girls, nor does it spend this 
money to the best advantage. To-day the farmer 

* From a report by Supt. J. O. Kern, quoted by H. W. 
Foght, The American Rural School, p. 326. See also 
Country Life and the Country School, Mabel Carney, Chi- 
cago, 1912, p. 150. 

f Foght, op. cit., pp. 324, 327. 

4 4i 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

spends $13.17 for the education of his children every 
time the city dweller spends $33.01 ! Can further ar- 
gument be necessary? And much of what is invested 
in rural education is spent to poor advantage in feeble, 
poorly instructed schools, which could just as well be 
abandoned or consolidated." * 

* Foght, op. cit., p. 332. 



CHAPTER IV 

ADAPTING THE COUNTRY SCHOOL TO 
COUNTRY NEEDS 

A Two-fold Problem. — Let us remember our double 
purpose in studying the country school. First of all, 
we should see in it a situation which is typical of 
our whole educational enterprise in America, namely, 
a school system very imperfectly adjusted to the needs 
of modern rural society, a system betraying the in- 
ertia which is very liable to develop in schools every- 
where. A method of education once worked out to 
meet a certain need is apt to become fixed and unre- 
sponsive to the new social needs which are bound in 
time to develop in a progressive community. 

Society is always larger and more vital than any of 
its institutions. An institution which, to start with, 
is quite adequate soon becomes inadequate, and vig- 
orous reconstruction is needed to keep it up with the 
times. The church has, in many respects, fallen be- 
hind present-day needs. Its old methods, once effec- 
tive, no longer grip people and shape their lives as 
those methods should. Political parties betray the 
same tendency to inertia, and are in frequent need of 
reorganization. 

We have shown how the rural school studies and 
methods of to-day were the product of the pioneer 
community. Crude though they were, they met fairly 
well the requirements of those early days for the 

43 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

beginnings of an education. To-day they are out of 
touch with the needs of country-life. Our first ob- 
ject, then, in studying these schools, is to observe this 
tendency and see, if possible, how it may be avoided, 
not merely in the country, but in the village and city 
as well. 

Our other purpose in this study should be to see 
how rural education in its various details can be made 
to minister to real social efficiency. The first prob- 
lem is a general one; the second is specific. In the 
preceding chapter we sketched the situation in the 
gross. In the present chapter our aim is to see what 
particular things are being done and may still further 
be done to meet the general need already outlined. 
We shall here take up, one by one, certain of the 
means suggested on page 378, by which the rural 
schools may be vitalized and made effective instru- 
ments in training country boys and girls to be so- 
cially efficient men and women. 

I. A COURSE OF STUDY ADAPTED TO COUNTRY NEEDS 

The first means suggested was that of a better 
course of study. Just what is the problem, and how 
is it being worked out? It goes without saying that 
country children must be taught the fundamental 
common branches. They must learn to read, write, 
and use numbers. They must be made acquainted 
with geography, history, and the every-day use of 
their mother-tongue. Their powers of perception, of 
memory, imagination, judgment, and reasoning must 
be developed, and their capacity for attention must 
be trained. They must acquire good habits of con- 
duct in association with others and right ideals of 

44 



RURAL SCHOOL AND RURAL NEEDS 

life generally. In none of these matters is the need 
of the country child a whit different from that of 
children everywhere. All schools are concerned with 
these various types of training, although they may 
actually accomplish much less than that at which they 
aim. The country school should be at least as effi- 
cient in these particulars as the school in the city. It 
should be different from the city school only in 
the means it uses to attain these ends. It should 
utilize to the fullest extent the materials afforded by 
the country environment in every one of its studies. 

Reading and Writing. — In the matter of merely be- 
ginning to read and write, there will, of course, be 
nothing to distinguish the country school from that 
of the city. As the children acquire skill in these arts, 
however, the materials on which they work should 
be those of their natural surroundings. They should 
have books to read which shall tend to awaken and 
enlarge their interest in country life and country prob- 
lems. For the lower classes there already exist large 
numbers of "nature readers", which boys and girls 
of the country need quite as much as do those of the 
city, that their eyes may be opened to what is going 
on about them in forest, field, and stream. 

For the upper classes there are masterpieces of lit- 
erature which present the idealistic side of agriculture 
and interpret nature from the standpoint of country 
life.* There is no reason why a part of the reading 
of the older children should not be found in books 

* Quotations in this and the following paragraphs are 
from a suggestive discussion of "The Country School De- 
partment of the Illinois State Normal University," by 
Mabel Carney, in The Normal Quarterly, Oct., 191 1. 

45 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

and pamphlets which deal with the economic problems 
of the country, such as certain of the bulletins of the 
Department of Agriculture, or such admirable books 
as those of Professor L. H. Bailey on country life 
and country interests. 

Grammar and Composition. — "The essentials of 
grammar should be taught informally, chief attention 
being given to good habits in the use of English." 
These good habits can be acquired only by practice 
in conversation and writing, and what better subject 
is there than the interests of the farm home and the 
country environment? The teacher must, of course, 
appreciate these interests in order to raise them 
above the level of the commonplace and make 
them seem really worth while. The children will 
not be long in catching the enthusiasm of a teacher 
of deep sympathy with and genuine zeal for country 
life. 

There is a growing custom of having city school 
children correspond with children in other parts of 
the country and exchange with them pictures and 
small samples of their natural products. This cus- 
tom yields good results, both for geography and 
nature-study, and vitalizes the work in letter-writing 
and composition. This plan might be adopted to 
advantage by country children as a means not only of 
increasing their knowledge of the farm-products 
and methods of different states, but also as a natural 
means of motivating their practice of written Eng- 
lish. 

Arithmetic. — The rural school should, of course, 
thoroughly ground its children in the essentials of 
this subject, and, in doing so, it should draw its prob- 

46 



RURAL SCHOOL AND RURAL NEEDS 

lems largely from the farm and the country home. 
This will become more and more possible in the upper 
grades, where the processes of farming and household 
economy are studied specifically. Arithmetic has an 
important place in the management of the farm. Per- 
centage, mensuration, and the other usual topics 
should be "presented through problems of corn-rais- 
ing, stock-feeding, farm machinery, fertilizers, drain- 
age, and other farm interests", such as the marketing 
of its products, buying of supplies, and the keeping of 
accounts. 

Geography. — The aim of geography in the rural 
schools should be, not merely to familiarize the chil- 
dren with the essential facts of the science, both 
physical and political, but to discuss the imme- 
diate problems of "weather, drainage, transporta- 
tion, roads, field erosion, the use of wind and 
waterpower, crop production, and similar topics". 
It should aim at an intelligent understanding of 
natural forces, their relation to human life, and 
the extent to which their action can be foreseen and 
controlled. 

Nature Study and Elementary Science. — Different 
phases of elementary science are finding a large place 
in the elementary course of study of the best schools. 
The opportunities in this direction open to the trained 
rural teacher are particularly fine. The children are 
in constant association with many different natural 
forms and forces. Their welfare as citizens of the 
country is intimately bound up with their knowing 
about certain plants, insects, birds, and larger ani- 
mals, native and domestic. "Trees, pond life, com- 
mon flowers, weeds, and grasses, plant propagation, 

47 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

corn and corn-breeding, soil, with simple experiments, 
fertilizers, crop rotation — all furnish an abundance of 
interesting material for training their powers of ob- 
servation." The practical economic problems that 
may be suggested in connection with them are 
without any limit. Surely no country lad or lass 
should lack for opportunity to learn to think and 
grapple with real problems. And yet, unless they 
are taught to observe and think about this world 
of nature, they will be largely unappreciative 
of it. 

The nature study of the lower grades in the country 
school should center about the habits and economic 
value of birds and other varieties of wild life; it 
should include a study of insects, good and bad, and 
their relation to crops and to health. The common 
weeds should be observed and their methods of 
propagation and extermination should be considered. 
Vegetables, grains, grasses, fruits, and trees all pre- 
sent hosts of simple and yet fascinating problems, 
whether approached from the point of view of ele- 
mentary botany, or from the point of view of farm 
economy. The small wild animals and the domestic 
animals and fowls of the farm afford the best of 
material for a first course in zoology, as well as being 
of great practical importance to every farm boy and 
girl. 

Chemistry and Physics, — Elementary lessons in 
chemistry and physics will not want for material, 
both for observation and experiment, in the study of 
soils, fertilizers, freezing and thawing, the care and 
testing of milk, simpler problems in the construction 
of fences, farm buildings, concrete construction, pres- 

48 



RURAL SCHOOL AND RURAL NEEDS 

ervation of foods, baking, cooking, etc. All of these 
things the country child knows a little about, but 
only enough usually to make him despise them. They 
do not appeal to him as things attractive and worth 
thinking about, but only as connected with hard and 
often thankless work. To study about them at 
school would throw them into a new light and give 
to many children a new interest in them. In any 
case, there is not a shred of reason why the children 
of the country should not find the main part of their 
intellectual training in just these concrete situations 
and objects that lie closest about them. The printed 
material to guide the teacher in such work is now 
abundant and easily accessible, both in books and in 
U. S. Farmers' Bulletins. The chief obstacle to the 
practical carrying out of such a course of study is 
the lack of teachers who know how to start it, for, 
once started, the farmers would soon be aroused to 
its desirability, and would demand it for their 
children. 

Physiology and Hygiene. — To the general subject 
matter of these sciences should be added frequent dis- 
cussions "of the rural phases of school and personal 
hygiene with special attention centered on the farm 
home and the causes and prevention of rural dis- 
eases", the conditions needful for pure drinking 
water, pure milk, the dangers of carelessness in 
these matters, and in the disposal of waste ma- 
terials and offal, the propagation of disease by flies 
and other insects. 

History and Civics. — In addition to the fundamental 
facts of United States history and of local govern- 
ment, the teacher should emphasize and lead the 

49 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

pupils to think of "the need for agricultural states- 
men and more equitable legislation for farming". 
The development of agriculture in different parts of 
the country should be taken up with special reference 
to the evolution of better methods, the allotment of 
government lands, the reclaiming of arid areas, and 
the conservation of natural resources. 

Manual Training. — This type of work is beginning 
to find a place in even one-room country schools, and 
no subject is more worthy of attention. In the lower 
as well as in the upper grades there should be practi- 
cal instruction in various sorts of simple construction. 
"All manual training projects should be so chosen as 
to be of special interest and value to farm boys. 
Chicken-coops, [trap-nests], gates, milk-stools, sleds, 
and various articles for farm and home and school 
may be included in the list of projects." 

Careful Grading Necessary. — It goes without saying 
that such subjects as are above outlined should be 
carefully graded to pupils of different ages. The be- 
ginnings can be made in the lowest classes, and, as 
the upper classes and the high school are reached, the 
attention should be more and more largely devoted 
to these specifically rural materials and problems. 
Unless a real country high school, of the type de- 
scribed in the last chapter, is provided, the pupils 
will not, of course, get very far in any of these 
studies. 

Already many satisfactory courses in agriculture and 
home economics have been put in successful opera- 
tion in different rural high schools scattered over the 
country. We venture to reproduce here a set of such 
courses now offered in Colebrook Academy, situated 

50 






RURAL SCHOOL AND RURAL NEEDS 

in the small country town of Colebrook, in northern 
New Hampshire. 

DETAILED OUTLINE OF COURSES IN AGRICULTURE * 

Agronomy 

1. Elements of plant life: Study of seed, root, stem, 

leaf, reproduction. 

2. Soils : Origin, kinds, uses, soil water, plant food, 

care and improvement. 

3. Seed selection and testing: Judging, germinating, 

analyzing. 

4. Fertilizers and manures : Composition, value, rela- 

tion to soils and crops, lime. 

5. Insects : Kinds, harm, benefit, life habits. 

6. Farm crops: Kinds, cultivation, uses, care. 

7. General handling of field crops. 

8. Experimental work in greenhouse. 

9. Practical work in school garden. 

The class plant a school garden in the spring in which 
all crops are raised which grow in this climate. This 
will develop into a farm for demonstration and practi- 
cal work. 

Farm Carpentry 

1. Construction and proper use of carpenter's tools. 

2. Reading and drawing blue prints. 

3. Plan for each article finished before construction 

begins. 

4. Study of building plans and construction, with prac- 

tice in estimating and figuring the cost. 

* From "The Readjustment of a Rural High School to 
the Needs of the Community," by H. A. Brown. United 
States Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1912, No. 20. 

5i 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

5. Mechanical drawing. 

6. Construction of wooden articles needed on farm and 

for home and school use. 

7. Repairs to school building. 

8. Practical work in construction and repairing. 

Farm Black smithing 

1. Proper use and construction of blacksmith's tools. 

2. Mechanical drawing, continued. 

3. Study of iron and steel manufacture in an elemen- 

tary way. 

4. Hardening and tempering. 

5. Study of typical farm implements, machinery, and 

so far as possible construction and repair of same. 

6. Constant practical work at the bench and forge on 

useful articles of iron construction. 

It is hoped to make these courses a means of better 

articulating of the school with the community. The 

school plans to be of assistance to the farmers in the 

vicinity by making simple repairs to tools and machinery. 

Animal Husbandry and Dairying 

1. Types and breeds of farm animals: Horses, cattle, 

sheep, swine, poultry. 

2. Principles and practice of breeding: Origin, im- 

provement, care of farm animals and plants. 

3. Feeds and feeding: Why, what, how to feed. 

4. Structure and functions of the animal body: Sys- 

tems of the body, and care. 

5. Animal diseases, disinfection and general sanitation ; 

prevention and cure. 

6. Observing and scoring herds in vicinity. 

7. Milk: Kinds, care, uses, composition. 

52 



RURAL SCHOOL AND RURAL NEEDS 

8. The Babcock test: Theory and practice, use. 

9. Essentials in good milk production: Cleanliness, 

care. 

10. Market milk and cream: Kinds, uses, preparation, 

care. 

11. Buttermaking. 

Horticulture 

1. Review of general principles of plant life, soils, fer- 

tilizers, and cultivation. 

2. Greenhouses, hotbeds, and cold frames : Principles, 

construction, and use. 

3. Care of plants under glass, forcing and hardening. 

4. More special study of (a) vegetable growing; (b) 

fruit growing; (c) flower growing. 
The excellent greenhouse makes it possible to teach 
this course almost by the practical method. 

Road Building 

1. Essentials of a good road: Grades, solidity, water- 

shedding characteristics. 

2. Road material and principles of construction. 

3. Dirt, gravel, macadam, and telford roads. 

4. Bridges, grades, cuts, and fills. 

5. Projecting, laying out, and figuring cost of roads 

in the vicinity. 

6. Field work in observation of construction work in 

State highways in the vicinity. 

Forestry 

1. Study of New Hampshire forest types: Life his- 
tory, associates, enemies of characteristic tree in 
each type. 

53 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

2. Forest seeding and planting. 

3. Management of the form forest; the wood supply. 

4. Management of Government forests. 

5. Conservative lumbering. 

6. Relation to stream flow and general rural conditions. 

7. Practical field observation and lectures by experi- 

enced foresters and lumbermen. 

Rural Economy and Farm Management 

1. Farm accounting and bookkeeping: Value, meth- 

ods, extent. 

2. Farm management: Values, systems, management 

of farm and farm products. 

3. Elements of rural law; legal relations of farmer to 

surroundings. 

4. Conditions determining farm values. 

5. Systems of cropping. 

6. Marketing and transportation. 

7. Management of fields and cropping. 

8. Water supply and sewage. 

DETAILED OUTLINE OF COURSES IN DOMESTIC ARTS 

Elementary Sewing 

1. All cutting and stitching involved in sewing simple 

articles for dress and household, including the 
making of such articles as jabots, sewing bags, 
towels, aprons, doilies, handkerchiefs, kimonos; 
darning, mending, etc. 

2. Sewing clothing cut by competent fitter. 

3. Elementary machine sewing. 

About one-eighth of the time is devoted to instruction 
and calculation. In this course no attempt is made to 

54 



RURAL SCHOOL AND RURAL NEEDS 

follow a set outline. It consists entirely of practical 
work and the various stitches are learned when needed. 

Dressmaking, Millinery, and Designing 

1. Designing, cutting, and fitting of clothing. 

2. Purpose and requirements of clothing ; materials ; 

selection of materials. 

3. Instruction and practice in drafting, including the 

making of drawers, shirtwaists, shirt patterns, etc. 

4. Making gingham dress from pattern. 

5. Materials used for hats. 

6. Combination of colors and materials. 

7. Relation of face to shape of hat. 

8. Plates and drawings. 

9. Designing of hat for pupil. 

10. Selecting material and making a hat. 

One-half of the time in this course is given to study- 
ing designs from sketches and prints from the artistic 
point of view. 

Elementary Cooking 

1. Management of coal, wood, and oil ranges. 

2. Care of utensils, sink, and other apparatus. 

3. Preparation and cooking of vegetables and cereals. 

4. Use and cooking of eggs and milk. 

5. Preparation of cheap cuts of meat. 

6. Different methods of preparation of fish. 

7. Batters and doughs, and preparation of muffins, 

popovers, bread, and similar articles. 

8. Preparation of simple desserts, such as bread pud- 

ding, lemon jelly, tapioca cream, etc. 

9. Preparation of simple menus. 

10. Preparation and serving of simple dinners, includ- 
ing instruction in table setting, serving, etc. 

55 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

Practically no attempt is made in this course to teach 
the chemistry of foods. The course consists of a maxi- 
mum of concrete practice with a minimum of theory. 

Advanced Cooking and Dietetics 

1. Canning and preserving' from a bacteriological point 

of view, with practical work with material from 
the school garden; decays, molds, bacteria, sterili- 
zation, etc. 

2. Composition, structure, methods of cooking vege- 

tables; place in diet; practice in cooking vege- 
tables. 

3. Cereals: Methods of cooking as governed by com- 

position and commercial preparation; practice in 
preparation of various cereals. 

4. Milk: Value as food; effect of heat as to physical 

changes, digestibility, and preservation ; practice. 

5. Eggs: Composition, place in diet, preservation; 

practice in preparation in various ways. 

6. Meat and fish : Chemical composition, economy, 

place in diet; methods of preparation. 

7. Practice with batters and doughs, with the study of 

grains and of leavening agents. 

8. Preparation of salads; importance in diet. 

9. Desserts : Relation to preceding courses in menu ; 

practice in the preparation of both cold and hot 
desserts. 

10. Food values; chemistry and biology of cooking; 

preparation of economical dietary; food combina- 
tions ; relation of occupation to food requirements. 

11. Practical work in serving. 

Trained Teachers. — To carry out such a course of 
study demands trained teachers, but if the work is 

56 



RURAL SCHOOL AND RURAL NEEDS 

worth while the teachers will be forthcoming. The 
question is, Shall or shall not the country child be 
taught to know and love the country? If he is to 
be taught, it must be done rightly by those who know 
how. Let no one raise the cry that such an education 
will be productive of social castes, or that the country 
child shall thereby be deprived of full opportunity to 
make the most of himself in the great world. No 
system of education could be more productive of 
caste and of closed opportunities to native ability 
than just the type which still largely persists in our 
rural districts, the type which tends either to lure 
the children to the cities or to permit them to sink 
back to become unintelligent, inefficient tillers of the 
soil. 

Possibilities for the One-room School. — No teacher 
or country superintendent need bewail his inability 
to do anything because he is confined to small one- 
room schools. Desirable as consolidation and rural 
high schools may be, he need not wait for their estab- 
lishment. The work of Miss Jessie Field, Superin- 
tendent of Page County, Iowa, is well known, and 
furnishes a striking illustration of the development 
possible even under unpromising conditions. Her 
work has extended not merely to vitalizing the course 
of study, but to making her country schools centers 
of interesting social life. Here we may refer only 
to the first feature. Classified farm bulletins have 
been put in the schools and the pupils have learned 
that they are worth reading ; as a result, they turn to 
them eagerly when their lessons are finished. 

Miss Field's Work. — Her own words best describe 
this phase of her work : 

5 57 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

Our teachers one spring had at each school a ger- 
mination test for seed corn. One little teacher reported : 
"My boys, who wouldn't go across the road for a song- 
book, went two miles in a snowstorm to get some saw- 
dust for a germination box. And when the corn had 
germinated the farmers came to the schoolhouse to see 
how their corn had turned out, and incidentally saw the 
work of the school. Why, farmers came who couldn't 
remember when they had been inside the schoolhouse 
before." 

We have a Babcock milk tester, which we pass from 
school to school in the districts specially interested in 
dairying. After the school learns how to use it, the 
farmers ask to borrow it. One farmer who returned 
the tester yesterday told me that because of it he had 
sold eight cows that it was not paying him to keep. 
For the Babcock tester soon weeds out the cows that 
are not paying their board, let alone bringing a profit 
for the hard work of the farmer who milks them. 

In districts where fruit growing is especially carried 
on we hope to bring especially something of the science 
of horticulture. Throughout our country the great 
money crop is corn. So our schools are all interested 
in corn. Some six hundred boys are growing corn 
under direction and showing it for prizes.* 

We cannot here attempt to give a more extended 
account of the adaptation of the course of study to 
the needs of the country and of country children. 
Enough has been said to make clear the lines along 

* Jessie Field, "The District Schools in a County as Edu- 
cational and Social Centers," p. 18 of Tenth Year Book of 
the National Society for the Study of Education, Pt. II., 
1911. 

58 



RURAL SCHOOL AND RURAL NEEDS 

which work is being done and may be still further 
developed. We may turn now to a brief review of 
efforts along the second line mentioned in the last 
chapter, namely, the encouragement of social and 
cooperative activities among the pupils and others of 
the community. 

2. SOCIAL AND COOPERATIVE ACTIVITIES 

Boys' and Girls' Farm Clubs. — Perhaps the most 
far-reaching means by which the country schools may 
make their training more socially effective is through 
appealing to the economic interests both of the boys 
and girls and the parents. From these as a center 
almost all lines of betterment have been found to 
radiate. Moreover, when the people in the country 
realize that the school is alive to their real economic 
interests, their minds are opened to the other things 
the school can do for them. Let no one raise the cry 
that the economic utility values are to be lightly es- 
teemed in any scheme for a more socially efficient 
education. Such an objection betrays a lack of knowl- 
edge of the driving forces of human development. 

Two obvious and comparatively simple needs of the 
country are better crops and better homes. They are 
lines along which schools have found it easy to make 
beginnings and which have formed entering wedges 
into rural conservatism for the introduction of many 
socializing influences. Interest in these two lines 
has been aroused over wide sections of the country 
through boys' and girls' clubs. The corn-growing 
clubs of the boys are perhaps the most widespread, 
and on these have been patterned clubs for cotton, 
potato, and fruit growing, and for poultry raising. 

59 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

For the girls have been organized clubs for better 
cooking, fruit canning, sewing, and others of similar 
nature. These clubs are naturally loose organizations, 
the method varying somewhat in different states, but 
in all of them there is the healthful motive of com- 
peting in some sort of production. Each boy or girl 
works out on the home farm some problem which is 
of vital agricultural significance; for example, a 
project of intensive corn or potato cultivation or of 
bread baking. The knowledge that many other boys 
and girls are similarly engaged, and that honors or 
prizes are to be awarded for the best work, gives a 
zest to the study of these needful country occupations 
which was seldom or never aroused when these chil- 
dren simply helped their parents. 

The selection of good ears of corn for seed, the 
testing of sample grains for their vitality, the best 
methods of planting and of cultivating, all these 
things involve a degree of observation and reflection, 
and an exercise of keen judgment such as throw the 
formal exercises of the old-fashioned school entirely 
into the shade. Unite with this intellectual alertness 
the opportunity for working out one's ideas, not 
merely concretely, but under the conditions of real 
life and in healthful competition and cooperation with 
others, and we have set in motion an educative process 
of a most effective type, an educative process which 
not only enlists in boys and girls energies before 
undreamed of, but connects these energies with per- 
manent life interests and motives, not of the children 
only, but of the whole community. Such results were 
almost never accomplished by the old type of school. 
As one of the leaders in this movement says: "Be- 

60 






RURAL SCHOOL AND RURAL NEEDS 

ginning with an awakened interest in one thing — bet- 
ter seed corn, for example — communities have rapidly 
extended their interest to other features of rural im- 
provement, with the result that in the regions affected 
by the agricultural club movement there has come 
about a general upward trend in the thoughts and 
activities of the people." * 

These clubs serve many useful purposes. First 
of all, they quicken the interest of boys and girls in 
the economic activities of the farm and home. No 
child can take part in a corn-growing or baking con- 
test without being made to realize vividly and effec- 
tively that science is related to everyday life. These 
contests open up a wide range of nature-study ma- 
terials, and, best of all, bring the knowledge thus ac- 
quired into actual use. The crying evil of practically 
all elementary and high school work of to-day is that 
it does not connect in any real way with the life in- 
terests and activities of all normal boys and girls. 
The work does not function in any appreciable de- 
gree, and is therefore soon lost out of their lives. 
The interests aroused by these economic activities 
furnish also a basis for vital work in arithmetic, 
geography, history, and, in fact, every line of instruc- 
tion possible in the rural school. Life in the country 
is seen to be full of possibilities for the ingenious 
and scientifically minded boys and girls. The voca- 
tions connected with the farm and the farm home 
are seen to be no more mere deadening routine and 
drudgery, but to demand applied science and manual 
skill of the highest type. 

* F. W. Howe, Tenth Year Book, National Society for the 
Study of Education, Pt. II., p. 21. 

61 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

Social Value of the Clubs. — But the value of this 
work is not alone economic. Its socializing value is 
fully as great. The organization of country children 
in competitive and cooperative clubs destroys the sense 
of isolation that has in the past accompanied so much 
farm work. The children of the community are 
brought into contact with each other; sociability and 
feelings of mutual interest spontaneously develop. A 
sense of the value of organized effort and of coopera- 
tion takes the place of cold indifference, if not of 
actual distrust. 

All sorts of opportunities present themselves for 
getting not merely the boys and girls, but also the 
whole community together. The boys' and girls' an- 
nual camp, "Annual County Parents' Day", county, 
or even township and district, "Corn Shows" and 
industrial expositions, culminating in district and state 
meetings for the exhibition of products and the 
awarding of prizes, excursions of children and parents 
to high-grade experiment farms and to agricultural 
colleges, are all natural outgrowths of the club idea. 

Development in Nebraska. — In some states, typically 
in Nebraska, the movement is organized on a state- 
wide scale, the state department of education issuing 
many bulletins full of practical suggestions for the 
simpler phases of farm and home activity. These 
bulletins can be distributed through the schools and 
may furnish the basis for much important discussion 
in the course of the regular school work. Almost every 
phase of rural interest is discussed in a practical 
fashion in these leaflets : testing, husking, and judging 
corn, potato culture, the elements of domestic science, 
simple sewing. The bulletins come out at intervals 

62 



RURAL SCHOOL AND RURAL NEEDS 

during the )^ear and contain information appropriate 
to the season in which they are issued. Club mem- 
bers make written reports of their work to the state 
department of public instruction. 

Interesting and valuable as this work has proved 
to the children of rural schools, the communities and 
the school authorities have hardly yet recognized its 
full educational significance. There is a disposition 
to regard the club activities as merely accessory to the 
regular work of the school and to insist that the time 
devoted to them shall be out of school hours and that 
they shall not interfere with the "regular" work of 
the school. It is altogether necessary that high stand- 
ards of school work be maintained, and that the 
teaching shall be of the highest grade obtainable, but 
it would seem that the incorporation of these country- 
life interests into the regular work of the rural school 
should be one of the next steps taken, and that it 
would be quite consistent with the highest standards 
of school work. 

Wider Influences. — We have said that these club in- 
terests are an entering wedge for many things which 
contribute to the social efficiency of the rural school. 
School grounds, buildings, and equipment are im- 
proved when the people of a community find that their 
school is alive and interested in them, for then they 
become interested in it. To quote again from Miss 
Field : "It was in a district school like this, where 
all the men came and spent the day terracing the 
grounds, and their wives brought dinner and they ate 
together. A more beautiful school ground and a hap- 
pier neighborhood spirit resulted. It was for this 
school that the grouchiest farmer in the district 

63 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

opened up his heart and came himself and brought 
his son and his hired man and three teams to work 
on the yard because the school had won a place in 
his respect by doing such strong and transforming 
work." * 

School Libraries. — These cooperative and social ac- 
tivities are being extended in many directions. In 
some parts of the country special attention is given 
to building up useful school libraries and collections 
of pictures. Professor Graham, Superintendent of 
Agricultural Extension in Ohio State University, has 
done much to develop country school libraries. His 
work is typical of what is being undertaken in some 
other states. The social meaning of the library may 
well be stated in his own words : 

The rural school comes a little nearer than any other 
organization to being the center of a variety of com- 
munity interests. A greater percentage of the people 
of any community can be reached from the little country 
schoolhouse than can be reached through the public 
libraries or through the schools of a city when an equal 
number of people in each place is considered. The fre- 
quent communication of the rural home with the rural 
school through the child who attends it brings the little 
library into close contact with that home. For this rea- 
son, if for no other, it is a little nearer to the people 
who support it than is the city library. 

The country school library leads to much reading at 
the fireside. The natural result is that more small pri- 
vate libraries are built up in the homes than would be, 
had there been no opportunity for general reading in 

* Tenth Year Book, Pt. II., op. cit., p. 18. 

64 



RURAL SCHOOL AND RURAL NEEDS 

the home. In some communities it has been found that 
prior to the establishing of the library at school the num- 
ber of books in the homes could be counted on the ringers 
of one hand. Sometimes the Bible, the last agricultural 
report, and a Hagerstown almanac made up the library 
for young and old. The same home, or others like it, 
has coming to it some low-grade story paper or so-called 
agricultural paper whose subscription price is something 
like ten cents for three or perhaps five years.* 

The Country School Beautiful. — Superintendent J. 
O. Kern, of Winnebago County, Illinois, has identified 
himself with many phases of rural school improve- 
ment. Not the least important of his services has 
been that of arousing public sentiment for better and 
more attractive school-houses and grounds. By 
means of the camera, printing press, and stereopticon, 
he has brought home to the farmers of his county 
the difference between ugly and beautiful school 
plants. Through illustrated articles in the county 
papers, through lectures at parents' meetings, teach- 
ers' institutes, farmers' institutes of the county, 
through traveling art exhibits, and suitable books and 
magazines in the school libraries, "the taste for better 
things is being created" in the children and in the 
parents, and an active public sentiment for the beau- 
tiful has been built up in whole communities.f 

3. THE SCHOOLHOUSE A SOCIAL MEETING-PLACE 

The natural culmination of the different lines of en- 
deavor mentioned above is found in the country school 

* Tenth Year Book, National Society for the Study of 
Education, Pt. II., pp. 35 f. 

f Tenth Year Book, op. cit., pp. 44 f. 

6S 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

as a social center, whether it be a one-room build- 
ing, or a modern consolidated school. The country 
community needs a center for its social life, a place 
for lectures and entertainments and social gatherings. 
When the building and grounds have been rendered 
really attractive, as described in the preceding section, 
it is not hard to induce the people to gather and en- 
joy them. Social and literary clubs of all sorts have 
been started by progressive rural teachers among the 
younger adults, parents' meetings have been organ- 
ized, and lecture courses sustained. The best agri- 
cultural high schools conduct extension courses for 
the farmers and their wives. Such a school in Balti- 
more County, Maryland, has conducted, for the 
women, Saturday afternoon classes in domestic sci- 
ence, manual training, homecrafts, and modern liter- 
ature, and a lecture course in the evening for men, 
on "Soils and Fertilizers" ; it has planned and carried 
out a Corn Congress; has tested seeds and milk for 
farmers, and has developed social, literary, and re- 
ligious organizations among the young people. For 
all these activities the schoolhouse is the meeting- 
place, the social and intellectual center of the com- 
munity. Other schools here and there are undertak- 
ing similar and possibly more extended lines of social 
service. 

Teachers Who Are Leaders. — We have emphasized 
the need of trained teachers. It is manifest, also, 
that we must have teachers who can be leaders, teach- 
ers who have come from the country, who have en- 
dured the hard toil of the farm, who know and un- 
derstand the farmer folk, but who have also had a 
vision of a larger, happier, better life for the deni- 

66 



RURAL SCHOOL AND RURAL NEEDS 

zens of the country. This is really the greatest need 
presented to-day by rural education. While great 
natural leaders are few in number, the country has 
not been lacking in fine examples of superior leader- 
ship, and more will appear as the opportunities for 
service become more clearly defined. The teacher 
who loves the country, who will study his situation, 
who will acquaint himself with what is being done in 
a constructive way by others, who has the intelli- 
gence to plan his work to meet genuine needs in com- 
mon-sense ways, who is able to survive initial set- 
backs and discouragements, and "keep at it" with the 
patience born of conviction that he is right, will find 
his powers of leadership growing far beyond what 
he may have dreamed himself to be capable of at the 
outset. 

4. ORGANIZED RECREATION FOR COUNTRY BOYS AND 

GIRLS 

The Country's Need for Play. — We may refer only 
briefly to the need for and social value of organized 
recreation in the country. The social significance of 
play and its place in education we shall reserve for a 
separate chapter. The old life on the farm had too 
much work and too little play. The varieties of 
amusement that have developed among the shifting 
population of the third and fourth generation are 
not always of an elevating type. Then, again, as 
means of transportation have become better the young 
people of the country have been lured more and 
more by the cheap and tawdry amusements of the 
town and city. 

A definite movement has been started for the or- 

67 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

ganization and development of play in the country. 
This has naturally and properly been fostered and 
actively directed by the wide-awake educational 
agencies in the country. The social value of com- 
petitive field-meets and play festivals of various types 
for country boys and girls, as well as for their 
parents, cannot be too highly regarded. The success 
which has thus far attended such efforts when wisely 
directed is sufficient proof of the need and eagerness 
of the country for healthful sports and wholesome 
recreation. 

Professor Scudder's "Work. — Professor Myron T. 
Scudder, formerly of the New Paltz Normal School, 
New York, has been prominently identified with the 
problem of recreation for the country. Comment- 
ing on the need, he says : 

It must be borne in mind that play in the country 
is not so much to promote health as to develop the higher 
social instincts, to introduce another powerful centripetal 
factor into country life which will tend to counteract the 
expulsive features which have been so actively depopu- 
lating our rural districts. The country child does not 
play enough. His repertoire of games is surprisingly 
small and inadequate. If he would play more he would 
love the country better, see more beauty in it, feel the 
isolation less. 

And he would play more if conditions were favorable, 
for, unfortunately, they are not favorable to play. He 
does not know how to play or what to play; his parents 
are usually out of sympathy with play; and in the coun- 
try schools not only are his teachers as ignorant as he 
himself in regard to these matters, but even if the child 
and the teacher did know, the school trustee would in 

68 



RURAL SCHOOL AND RURAL NEEDS 

many cases interpose objections and forbid any effort 
in the direction of organized play or athletics. Left to 
themselves, only a comparatively few country districts 
will attempt to do anything. Initiative will have to come 
from the outside, but experience shows that with tact- 
ful persistence and with organized action considerable 
may be accomplished even in a short time. 

A very important result of play in the country is the 
development of community spirit, which is so seriously 
lacking in rural districts. There seems to be so little 
to hold people together. Social forces are centrifugal 
rather than centripetal. But once interest children in 
play, get them to organize teams, design and make a 
school banner, compose and learn a school cheer, adopt 
a distinctive athletic costume or even a celluloid button 
which is to be worn when they go to the next great play 
festival and compete with other schools, and there will 
be no lack of community spirit so far as the children 
are concerned, and the adult population will soon be 
catching something of it, too. . . . 

Perhaps it is not too much to say that through prop- 
erly supervised play and through a series of properly 
conceived and well-conducted festivals the civic and in- 
stitutional life of an entire county or district, and the 
lives of many individuals of all ages, may be permanently 
quickened and inspired, the play movement thus mak- 
ing surely for greater contentment, cleaner morals, and 
more intense patriotism and righteousness on the farm 
lands and in the village populations of our country.* 

With this topic we must bring this chapter to a 
close. Much more remains to be said. The experi- 
ments which have been mentioned are only a few 

* Tenth Year Book, op. cit., pp. 53 f. 

69 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

of the many that might have been given. Not all 
the phases of the problem have even been suggested. 
The interested student of the social relations of edu- 
cation will find an abundant and growing literature 
easily available for pursuing the study further. 

Practical Zeal Needed. — While much practical work 
has already been done along good lines, let us remem- 
ber it is, at its very best, only a beginning. Vast re- 
gions remain untouched, unvitalized. The redemp- 
tion on a large scale of the country school for the 
sake of the boys and girls and the community itself 
is one of the great educational problems of the pres- 
ent time. May the interest of the reader not be that 
of the merely curious, but that of the one who is 
fired by a zeal really to do something, even though it 
be little, to meet the present social crisis in the 
country. 






CHAPTER V 

THE CHARACTER-FORMING POSSIBILITIES OF 

HOME LIFE 

Social Efficiency Dependent "Upon Conduct. — All of us 
would agree that boys and girls need training in 
right conduct and in wholesome ideals, as a basis for 
social efficiency, but just how it can best be accom- 
plished is not as clear as might be desired, even to 
those who have thought about it most. Along with 
this generally recognized need, there is a constantly 
growing demand that the public schools should under- 
take definitely the task of moral as well as of intel- 
lectual education. 

Home and School Share Responsibility. — There can 
be no doubt that a great opportunity, as well as a 
great responsibility, does rest upon the schools for this 
sort of service to society; although as yet no generally 
accepted program of how to do it has been worked 
out. The teachers themselves in most cases do not 
know how to take hold and make such training vital. 
The moral education thus far provided by the schools 
is largely incidental and haphazard, the sort that oc- 
curs on the playground and in the informal contact 
of pupils and teachers within the school itself. This 
does not go as far as it should, and it is quite as 
apt to be bad as good, because no one thinks very 
much about it or tries to plan to make it effective. 

7i 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

But, while the school is awakening to its responsibility 
and is groping about to find some way to meet it, the 
home must not forget its own duty in the matter. 
There is altogether too much of a tendency to-day 
for the home to try to shift its own responsibilities 
to outside institutions. As a matter of fact there is 
absolutely no substitute for the home in moral and 
religious training. 

The First Duty of Parents. — Family-life developed in 
the human race about the child, and, whatever other 
duties rest on parents, their greatest duty and privi- 
lege is, and always has been, the rearing of a healthy- 
minded, happy group of children. Whatever oppor- 
tunities the father and mother may have in the way 
of service outside the family, the good they may thus 
accomplish for society is little compared with what 
they may bring to pass through the right training of 
their own children. The greatest service to society 
is indeed to train properly the children of each new 
generation, and the right and normal place for this 
training to begin is in the home. If, through eco- 
nomic necessity, or through a mistaken sense of 
"larger duties," or, worse still, through refined sel- 
fishness, the home neglects its children, no other in- 
stitution can make good the loss that they thereby 
suffer. Even .if the deficiencies of the home should be 
corrected, in some degree, by other agencies, odds 
are against it, and, moreover, a character started 
wrong and later reformed is never quite as fine as 
one whose growth has been wholesome and normal 
from the start. 

The importance of the early years spent by the 
child in the family has long been appreciated, but 

72 



CHARACTER AND THE HOME 

even discerning parents have scarcely yet compre- 
hended in what subtle ways the social forces of 
family-life cooperate to fix the fabric and texture of 
the child's life or how permanent, withal, are the 
influences which operate in these earliest years. 

Complexity of Children's Growth. — The growth of 
children is, in truth, a many-sided affair. Their 
bodily development is dependent upon nourishing 
food, proper clothing, and an abundance of exercise 
and fresh air. The social and spiritual atmosphere 
which surrounds them is also fully as important, for 
their minds and bodies are clearly dependent upon each 
other, and a cheerful, buoyant, mental life acts upon 
the body and makes it respond more readily to nour- 
ishment and exercise. A child may be ever so well 
fed and clothed and yet fail to develop normally be- 
cause of defects in his family environment. His soul 
craves kindness and parental love, and without this 
his bodily functions cannot go on at their best. There 
is, indeed, no sadder sight than that of a little boy 
or girl, well cared for physically, but with every 
lineament of the face showing hunger for warm and 
wise parental affection. Denied this the spirit lacks 
a something which causes all the rest of the bodily and 
mental development to be distorted. 

It is the spiritual side of child growth with which 
we are here chiefly concerned, and we can consider 
only a part even of that, because it is itself such a 
large phase. It consists in part of the direct training 
of the child in right habits and right ideals of be- 
havior. Then, back of all explicit instruction by 
word of mouth, there is the training that comes merely 
through participating in the social life of the family. 
6 73 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

It is this social life, indeed, that makes the direct in- 
struction meaningful and effective, and it is, there- 
fore, of the first importance that parents should un- 
derstand how to make the home atmosphere as whole- 
some as possible. We shall attempt to sketch this 
particular aspect of the home's opportunity, and to 
show why it cannot be slighted without loss to the 
children. 

Power of the Home. — The peculiar power of the 
home for moral training rests upon its social rela- 
tionships. Good conduct and right ideals of life are 
essentially social matters. It is in the child's rela- 
tionship to other people that he first learns what it is 
to do right, and it is in daily living with others that 
he has the opportunity to practice morality. The 
"give and take" of normal family life is the ideal 
medium for acquiring and fixing for all time the 
habits and ideals of a wholesome life. After all, the 
intelligent practice of right conduct is the goal of all 
the home's efforts at child-training. 

The condition of first importance furnished by the 
normal home is then that of intimate, confidential, 
human associations. The more general, less intimate 
association with people outside its walls can never be 
as effective in character-building. Children get their 
first conception of human duties and of life's broader 
responsibilities through participating in the life of 
the family. The family is not merely the nursery of 
the physical child, it may even more be the nursery 
of all those qualities which go to make up a fine 
human nature. 

The Normal Home. — The home which produces 
such a training must, of course, be more than a mere 

74 



CHARACTER AND THE HOME 

economic collection of individuals. We do not, how- 
ever, have in mind the extraordinary, unusual home, 
the one of superior refinement and opportunity to 
pursue the finer things of life, or even the home of 
moderate circumstances, in which the parents have 
more than the average discretion and insight into the 
principles of child-training. We mean rather the nor- 
mal home (we can hardly any longer call it the aver- 
age), the home formed by honest, hard-working 
parents whose lives are ruled by ideals and who are 
anxious to do their very best for their children, who 
believe it is the main purpose of their lives to rear a 
happy group of right-minded children, who indeed 
look at this in no sense as a burden or as a restriction 
upon their performing some larger, more ostentatious 
duties, but rather as their very highest privilege. The 
normal home, wherever it still exists, is a definite 
center of spiritual life, participated in by a little 
community of people, parents and children. It has, 
naturally, various material interests. There are 
usually insistent economic necessities; there is work 
to do in which all share in different ways and de- 
grees. These, however, are but expressions of its 
deeper spiritual purpose; they are the ways through 
which the common collective life of parents and chil- 
dren realizes itself. 

Modern Industry Menaces Home Ideals. — There is 
reason to believe that we, in this country, are losing 
the old ideals of home-life. The integrity of the 
family is being threatened, but not primarily by the 
divorce-court. There are deeper lying menaces of 
many kinds, and different homes are affected by 
them in different ways. There is, perhaps, first of 

75 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

all the stress of modern industrial life which requires 
so many parents, and even children, to spend 
a large portion of their time completely outside of 
the home and away from its influences. Where 
parents and children cannot gather at least once or 
twice a day for meals, and where they cannot spend 
a part of their evenings together the spiritual unity 
of the home is seriously threatened. 

"Social Duties." — There are the "social duties" of 
the great middle and "upper" classes, and these are 
fully as insidious a menace to the development of true 
family-life as the unfavorable industrial life. Then, 
again, we should not forget the increasing tendency 
of the modern city to destroy not only the quiet privacy 
of the home, but also to remove from it its old-time 
independence. The present-day family is less a cen- 
ter of busy life than it used to be. It has less to do 
with the preparation of its food and clothing; it has 
left to it only a few of the thousand and one tasks 
of inner maintenance in which it once engaged and 
which diversified its life and gave to each child a real 
chance to be helpful. True, the family relieved of 
these duties, often hard and exacting, has more time 
left for "other things," but it is doubtful if these 
"other things" have furnished adequate compensa- 
tions for the loss sustained. The interests which were 
formerly centered around the family hearth have been 
scattered; the freer, easier life has broken down the 
spiritual unity of former days. 

Delinquency and the Home. — A study was recently 
made of the home conditions of delinquent high 
school boys and girls of Minneapolis. It was found 
that only about fifty per cent, of the families investi- 

76 



CHARACTER AND THE HOME 

gated eat breakfast together, even half of the time. 
Fifteen per cent, of the families are together for less 
than half the evening meals. Forty-six per cent, of 
these pupils confessed that they are "out" the larger 
share of their evenings every week. Fourteen pupils, 
out of three hundred and eighty, are never at home 
of evenings. Twelve per cent, of the families enter- 
tain company three or more times per week. Twenty 
per cent, of them apparently find the newspaper all- 
sufficient for regular mental diet. The investigating 
committee concluded that, even in the families where 
magazines are read, they are not in general of the 
type to furnish the children with much food for 
thought. As to outside amusements, it was found 
that these four hundred delinquent high school stu- 
dents attended more than two thousand, one hundred 
and sixty-six per month. These amusements are not 
necessarily all bad, but they are more or less idle 
and dissipating, and, in any case, they indicate that 
the outer world is making serious inroads upon the 
interests and impulses which should have centered in 
the home. 

The Home No Longer a Social Center. — It is not a 
mere theory, then, when we say that a thousand 
attractions induce the parents and children to leave 
the family fireside. In many households the home 
is no longer the place for the keenest enjoyments, the 
point toward which each turns with regret, when he 
finds he must needs be absent. There are other ways 
to get amusement, sociability, and even intellectual 
satisfaction, ways which seem fuller and richer, and 
the family finds only too late how evanescent and 
hollow these opportunities prove to be. In many 

77 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

homes the old-time spiritual values have been lost 
only gradually. Easier economic conditions enabled 
parents and children to taste more and more fre- 
quently of outside allurements which, because they 
were as yet untried, seemed to offer something better 
than the quiet enjoyment of home-life. 

Spiritual Unity of the Home. — In this latter day 
parents are complaining that their children are no 
longer duly respectful or obedient; that they are wild 
and coarse of taste, and we often hear it said that 
parents have erred in not being as strict and stern 
with their children as they used to be. But the real 
virtue in the old home was not in its sternness, but in 
its spiritual unity. Our children are suffering from 
the lack of this influence, rather than from a mere 
weakening of discipline, although the weaker disci- 
pline is one of the results of lack of spiritual unity. 

What, then, can be done to retain, or to restore, 
if it has been lost, the spiritual unity of home life? 
The individual parents cannot, of course, do much to 
change the general social life of their time. They can- 
not, if they would, reinstate old industrial methods. 
These conditions are changing, it is true, for better 
or worse, through the interaction of myriads of men 
and women. Something infinitesimal is accomplished 
for the better by each person who lives true to his 
ideals. But, desirable as it is to have a large and 
active idealism, and to strive to introduce a more 
healthy conduct of life in the great world of human 
associations, it must not blind parents to the possi- 
bility of bettering their more immediate relationships. 
They should see that their first duty is in their own 
homes. The larger duty to society is often remote 

78 



CHARACTER AND THE HOME 

and intangible, but the duty to one's family is con- 
crete and definite. One can always do something 
here and now to make the home-life more wholesome 
and more effective for child-training. 

How Preserve It? — This, then, is our problem. If 
the values of home-life have been lost, or are en- 
dangered by changed economic and social conditions, 
let us try to grasp the ideal more consciously and 
bend determined efforts toward realizing it, in spite 
of unfavorable external circumstances. Even though 
it may be difficult to do, we cannot believe that it is 
impossible. If the home, which we have described 
as normal, is of the right type, then it can and must 
be preserved. If we have drifted away from it, it is 
not necessarily because it is incapable of being main- 
tained under modern conditions, but because we have 
not realized keenly enough its true excellence. Ear- 
nest parents, therefore, must be brought to see clearly 
just what they can do to conserve the moral and spir- 
itual values of the household which, partly through 
neglect, are in danger of being lost. Such a proposal 
is of vastly more importance than any or all the re- 
forms in public education which periodically agitate 
the minds of the fathers and mothers. 

Its Relation to Economic Interests. — First of all, 
then, the parents must study and plan to conserve 
the moral unity of the home, for this is the mother 
of all character-forming influences. A spontaneous, 
collective life it has to start with, and this may either 
remain as it is, or it may be nurtured and developed 
to almost any extent. This collective life was fos- 
tered and furthered in the old days by the economic 
interests which centered about it. There was always 

79 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

something to do at home which made it a center of 
attention, and usually also of interest For those liv- 
ing in the country there is still the work on the farm 
and in the garden, the gathering of fruits and vege- 
tables for the winter, the care of domestic animals, 
the curing of meat, making of soap, etc. If we go 
back a half, or three-quarters of a century, we find 
still more diversified activities, in the form of spin- 
ning and weaving flax and wool, making of candles, 
and even shoes, and a thousand other things which, 
to us, through the distance of the years, look most in- 
teresting, but which were to our grandparents often 
hard and exhausting, and which, no doubt, deprived 
them of much opportunity to cultivate the "higher 
life". 

Exacting as these employments were they made the 
home a spiritual as well as an economic center of life. 
In these enterprises there were always chances for the 
children to help; in fact, their help was quite essen- 
tial to getting the work done. They learned not only 
how to do real work, but also how to be persever- 
ing, how to overcome difficulties, how to be helpful, 
honest, kindly, and loyal to the family circle and its 
interests. In the evenings, after the day's work was 
over, it was natural that the parents should sit to- 
gether with their children about the fireside and tell 
stories or read from a few choice books. In many 
an old-time home the only books were the Bible, Para- 
dise Lost, The Pilgrim's Progress, and perhaps Rob- 
inson Crusoe; and the frequent and loving reading 
aloud of these classics furnished the cap-stone to the 
wall of spiritual unity which surrounded the family 
circle. The children had not only their taste for en- 

80 



CHARACTER AND THE HOME 

during literature developed, but they acquired also, 
in this way, a fund of sound moral principles, which 
were bound to find expression in their work-a-day 
lives. 

The lessons that come to us to-day from these old 
pioneer homes are many, and there is no good reason 
why we cannot put them into practice. We are able 
no longer to base the spiritual unity of our family- 
life upon a varied round of economic activities, and 
yet every normal home must study to keep alive some 
of these activities of self -maintenance. The farm- 
home still furnishes plenty of work for its boys and 
girls, but if the children in the town and city are to 
have home-work, it must usually be through careful 
foresight and planning on the part of the parents. 
Some have lawns to mow, flower and vegetable gar- 
dens to care for, and perhaps a little poultry; there 
is food to cook, and washing, ironing, and mending; 
the rooms are to be kept clean and neat, and there 
are errands to run. Of course there is every ten- 
dency among all classes of people to have others hired 
to do these things, and there is little left to the chil- 
dren, out of school hours, but to play, perhaps to 
loiter on the streets, or to waste time and money in 
various cheap entertainments, of which the moving- 
picture show and the questionable vaudeville are all 
too typical. 

Value of Home Activities. — The power of stated and 
regular work about home to restrain a child from 
mischief and wrongdoing is little appreciated in the 
average city household. Of course, in the homes of 
the poor many children are overworked and exhausted 
by out-of-school duties, but their condition is scarcely 

81 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

more pitiable than that of the children of more well- 
to-do families, who have no home duties. Mr. Wil- 
liam George has found that work and responsibility 
for some difficult tasks are almost a panacea for the 
reformation of the wayward children of rich and 
poor alike. His experience with delinquent children 
from comfortable homes points conclusively to a fatal 
defect in the training these homes tend to provide. 
Such children are often suffering from irresponsi- 
bility. They have been used, all their lives, to have 
things done for them and, consequently, they have 
never acquired the art of relying on themselves for 
anything but the doing of mischief. 

Dr. Montessori, in her famous "Houses of Child- 
hood", in Rome, recognizes that the first step in 
child-training is to teach her little ones to do for 
themselves. They learn how to button on their own 
garments, how to lace their shoes, how to do scores 
of little acts of service for themselves and their mates. 
We may well say that the first step in moral training 
is to learn how to depend on one's self, and how to 
be ready to give kindly help to others when they 
need it. The various phases of promptness, obedi- 
ence, mutual helpfulness, truthfulness, and self-reli- 
ance can be much more vitally impressed through 
home duties than in any other way. There, if any- 
where, the child must learn how necessary these vir- 
tues are to the welfare of everybody and how hard 
it is to be happy without them. 

The Lesson of Thrift. — In connection with his ser- 
vice in the home the child should learn his first les- 
sons in thrift. The prevailing habit of our times is 
to spend rather than to save and, unless there is very 

82 



CHARACTER AND THE HOME 

wise and persistent effort put forth to correct it, the 
children of the poor, as well as of the rich, will early 
fall into a most careless regard for money. 

Over-fond parents get a good deal of selfish pleas- 
ure out of constantly spending and allowing their 
children to spend money for all sorts of trivial things. 
They think a few pennies or nickels here and there 
make so little difference, anyway, and the children 
seem to like it. Like it they do, but, even if it is 
only a matter of pennies, they are learning to spend 
rather than to save, and the latter lesson is always 
the harder one. Every parent can a thousand times 
better afford to forego the selfish pleasure of indulg- 
ing his children for the sake of teaching them the 
value of thrift. They can be paid for little services 
and encouraged to save their earnings. A child's 
own earnings should cover most of his needs in the 
way of books and toys, and, if he is obliged to buy 
out of his own resources, he soon acquires the art 
of the wise use of money. 

The Hollo Books. — The parent of to-day, who would 
like to get in mind a concrete picture of the family- 
life which may train and develop in its children the 
arts of individual and social responsibility, can not 
do better than read thoughtfully the Rollo Books, 
a little series of volumes for children, written more 
than sixty years ago by Jacob Abbott. They used to 
be popular in children's libraries, but are in danger, 
to-day, of being forgotten. They trace the life of 
a little boy, Rollo, through the various vicissitudes of 
play, school, work, vacation, etc. The social atmos- 
phere of his home, if a little overdrawn, is yet, on the 
whole, admirable, and is full of food for thought for 

83 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

parent as well as child. Rollo is a boy full of curi- 
osity and of eagerness to do things and he is encour- 
aged in everything to rely upon himself. He learns 
early that his success or failure in an enterprise de- 
pends upon his straightforwardness, patience, and 
willingness to use his own mind. The father occa- 
sionally discusses with him the little difficulties and 
problems which he faces, and helps him think things 
out for himself. In this way he gradually acquires 
insight into the principles of right-doing. Obedience, 
veracity, a willingness to work are never presented as 
abstract virtues, but always in relation to some real 
emergency that arises in his daily life. He constantly 
sees right-doing as a necessary incident of his home- 
and school-life. 

No parent can thoughtfully read these books with- 
out getting hosts of practical ideas as to how to make 
the social life of the home a real power in the devel- 
opment of wholesome-minded, self-reliant boys and 
girls. 

What Every Home Can Do. — There are, indeed, few 
parents who cannot do something to build up and 
preserve the character- forming influences expressed 
in the phrase "our home". Even if conditions are 
such that the children can do very little work, there 
is much they can participate in which will hold them 
together and make them better boys and girls. More 
evenings can be spent together in reading and in 
friendly social intercourse. The parents can discuss 
the work of the day, even if it has had to be per- 
formed away from home. If the children have had 
peculiar difficulties to meet and their hearts are sore 
they can be encouraged by kindly inquiries and inti- 

84 



CHARACTER AND THE HOME 

mate counsel. They must ever feel that the home is 
interested in all their varied enterprises, within and 
without the school. Better progress in their studies 
would often result, if they knew that their father 
and mother had a more loving concern that they do 
their best. Nothing alienates a child more quickly 
from the home than the sense that no one cares very 
much what he does. On the other hand, if he can 
be made to feel that every phase of his conduct in 
school and on the street does make a difference, does 
reflect upon the cheer of the home circle, he has 
gained one of the most powerful of incentives for a 
right life. 

The Opportunity of Conversation One of the most 

valuable and yet most neglected opportunities for 
character-formation is wholesome conversation at the 
table and in the evening circle. When we reflect 
how trivial and cheap home-talk often is, we need 
no longer wonder that conversation is a lost art. And 
yet the daily verbal intercourse of parents and chil- 
dren could yield great returns if only a little more 
thought were given to it. The trouble is that most 
people do not appreciate the power of conversation, 
or make any effort to develop it. To many parents 
the talk of children seems trivial. Their insistent 
and well-meant questions are answered in an off-hand 
way, or not at all. The distraction and teasing qual- 
ity of much of their talk is the direct outcome of 
their failure to find any appreciative response from 
their parents. The worth appears only as it fuses 
with a kindly attitude in some older person who is 
awake to the importance of his opportunity when he 
holds communion with the child-mind. 

85 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

In how many homes are the precious moments to- 
gether with the children frittered away upon silly 
gossip and coarse jests! How ready are the elders 
to pass back and forth comments upon the unlovely 
side of life, and, by their laughter over situations 
which the children cannot and should not understand, 
awaken in them a curiosity which, just because it 
cannot be satisfied, is almost sure to work harm in 
the children's inner life. 

It is not the child of six who sits at the table and 
listens; it is a human spirit, eager, curious, wondering, 
surrounded by mysteries, silently taking in what it does 
not understand to-day, but which will take possession 
of it next year and become a torch to light it on its way. 
It is through association with older people that these 
fructifying ideas come to the child ; it is through such 
talk that he finds the world he is to possess. 

The talk of the family ought not, therefore, to be 
directed at him or shaped for him; but it ought to make 
a place for him. If the Balkan situation comes up, let 
the boy get out the atlas and find Bosnia and Bulgaria; 
it is quite likely that his elders may have forgotten the 
exact location of these countries ; it is even possible that 
they may never have known. . . . 

Talk on books, plays, pictures, music, may have the 
same quality of a common interest for those who listen 
as well as for those who talk. There are homes in 
which the informal discussion of these matters is a lib- 
eral education; and long years after children, who were 
not taken account of at the time, remember phrases and 
sentences that have been key words in their vocabulary 
of life. . . . 

Children are part of the family and have a right 

86 



CHARACTER AND THE HOME 

to share in the talk; do not silence them by the old- 
fashioned arbitrary rule commanding them to be "seen 
but not heard." If they are in the right atmosphere, 
they will not be intrusive or impertinent; perhaps one 
reason why some American children are so aggressive 
and lacking in respect is the frivolity of the talk that 
goes on in some American families. Make place for 
their interests, their questions, the problems of their 
experience, for there are young as well as old perplexi- 
ties. Encourage them to talk, and meet them more than 
half way by the utmost hospitality to the subjects that 
interest and puzzle them. * 

Its Lasting Influence. — In fine, this much we may 
say with entire assurance : In the intimate conversa- 
tion in the home the real life is laid bare, whether it 
be noble, or coarse and low. The things which really 
interest the parents they will usually talk about, and 
what the child sees the parent truly cares for he is 
apt to care for himself. His sense of life's values is 
thus largely formed, and it will be very difficult for 
any other power to make him have a high regard for 
what he hears slightingly referred to by his parents. 

Sex Instruction. — Much is being said to-day about 
instruction in matters pertaining to sex, and no home 
can afford to neglect its responsibility in this particu- 
lar. Recent studies in psychology lend tremendous 
emphasis to this duty. Curiosity as to all such mat- 
ters usually develops much earlier than parents im- 
agine. Children of three and four often have in- 
quiries that need to be frankly faced and answered. 
The specialist in mental diseases frequently finds 

* From The Outlook, Nov. 14, 1908. 

87 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

that much of the trouble with his patient grows out 
of the early suppression of normal childish impulses. 
The parent who tries to suppress an impulse of any 
sort in his child may succeed in thrusting it out of 
the child's conscious life, but he does not really kill 
it. More than likely it is still working away in the 
recesses of his mind, producing distorted and unhap- 
py consequences in his conduct. 

Many things that the child may want to do are 
neither suitable nor right, but the energy of the im- 
pulse in most cases can be used in some desirable 
form of activity. What is needed most of all in the 
home-life is abundant opportunity to redirect the child 
rather than to stop him point-blank when his curi- 
osity and eagerness to do show undesirable tenden- 
cies. One of the most effective ways offered by sci- 
entific psychology for disposing of early impulses and 
curiosity of a sexual nature is through frank sympa- 
thetic conversation between parent and child. The 
air of mystery, the sense that these things must not 
be mentioned, and, worse still, the false information 
so often given, produce deep-seated and lasting harm 
to almost every phase of the child's inner and outer 
life. 

Intelligent Sympathy Needed. — After all, the great- 
est thing needed by the father and mother is that they 
be intelligently sympathetic with their children. Their 
other mistakes will be in part offset if they can really 
enter into the lives of their boys and girls and learn to 
appreciate their point of view in all they are striving 
to do. The father, as well as the mother, must be 
the comrade of the children. Openness and frankness 
must characterize their intercourse. They must be 



CHARACTER AND THE HOME 

absolutely truthful in all their dealings with them. 
They must cultivate the art of loving and confiden- 
tial talks with them. 

The problem of moral training in the home is made 
still harder by differences in the children themselves. 
Some are more tractable, and yield more readily to 
right influences than others. After we have done the 
very best we know how, we shall often feel that we 
have fallen far short in our efforts with this or that 
child. And yet trie fault will usually be found to 
lie, not in the principles here discussed, but in our 
own lack of insight into the needs of the troublesome 
youngster and in our lack of deftness in applying these 
principles. 

Practice Harder Than Precept. — In all the preceding 
discussion we have not been unmindful of the fact 
that it is easier to say than to do. The things which 
we have suggested are by no means easy of accom- 
plishment, and yet it is in just these things that the 
parents must find their greatest opportunities for 
child-training. To strive to accomplish something 
along right lines is better than to make no effort 
at all. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE COOPERATION OF SCHOOL AND 
COMMUNITY 

Demand for Economy of Effort. — In the minds of 
active men and women everywhere there is a grow- 
ing sense of the need of scientific management in all 
types of worthy social enterprise. The work of the 
world is increasing in scope and complexity and, 
great as is the fund of human energy, it has its limits. 
It must needs be conserved and utilized in ways that 
will contribute to its maximum efficiency. In earlier 
times, when the stress of life was less intense, the 
evil of wasted energy and of wasted natural resources 
was less apparent. But it is not so to-day. Waste of 
every sort is more and more open to condemnation. 
It is, in fact, a social menace. 

Economy in Industry. — None of us can see far into 
the future; none can predict with assurance just 
how modern civilization, with its increasing demands 
upon human and upon natural resources, is going 
to work out. The pressing problem of to-day is how 
to avoid waste of every description. In the indus- 
trial world, for example, all of the forces which op- 
erate in a given line of production must be corre- 
lated with one another; there must be no "hitches", 
no useless movements, the least possible loss in secur- 
ing raw materials, in their manufacture, and in the 

90 



COOPERATION WITH COMMUNITY 

bringing of them to the consumer. When competi- 
tion was less keen, and raw materials were abundant 
and cheap, leakages along the way attracted little seri- 
ous attention. As everybody knows, however, the 
problem of the scientific management of industry has 
already been met in part. At least the first steps have 
been taken toward a general and practical application 
of the principle involved. 

Economy in Social Enterprises. — What is true of in- 
dustry is true in far greater degree of all those enter- 
prises which are directly planned for increasing man's 
intellectual and social efficiency. Here the possibili- 
ties of conservation, through a scientific study of 
methods and aims, are hardly as yet generally real- 
ized. The problem, it is true, is recognized by indi- 
viduals and by separate organizations, but there is yet 
lacking a broad correlation of the various forces which 
operate upon and determine real human productivity. 
No mechanical adjustment of these forces can be 
adequate; the human factor must be taken as it is, 
that is, as human, and not as a machine. A man has 
feelings, prejudices, motives, ideals. These inevit- 
ably influence his behavior. Therefore all efforts to 
improve that behavior necessarily involve dealing 
with most complex and often inextricable influences. 

The education of children, in even its crudest form, 
is one of these complex processes. The organization 
of educative agencies in modern society, so that the 
best results may be attained, is, in fact, infinitely com- 
plex. The higher the ideal the greater the number 
of influences which play a vital part in the process 
and the more do we appreciate the need that they be 
scientifically adjusted and controlled. 

9i 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

Cooperation the Basis of Economy. — As we have 
seen, the school is the instrument of society for car- 
rying on a needful function. But, like all social in- 
stitutions or agencies, it is capable of doing its allotted 
work only as it continues in close relation with the 
society which it serves. There is no such thing as 
complete and absolute separation of functions. So- 
ciety is a unit, a whole, and all its divisions of labor 
are more or less arbitrary and for the sake of practi- 
cal expediency. Its parts, its forces, its interests, its 
activities are interwoven almost beyond our power to 
unravel. That the school has been established as an 
educative institution does not mean that the work of 
education is thereby transferred bodily and completely 
to the school. It rather means that the process of 
education has become so complex that it has to be 
cared for in part by this special agency, which shall, 
however, act in cooperation with the more general 
educative influences of society. 

The point, then, is that the principles and ideals of 
scientific management should be applied to education 
as well as to industry. Not merely to the aspects of 
education which occur within the school walls, those 
which have to do with methods of teaching and wise 
administration of the school's resources, but also to 
those which have to do with the school's relation to 
the more general educative influences of the home 
and society. 

The School a Supplementary Agency Look at it as 

we will, we must always admit that the school can 
perform but a part of the educative function, that, 
at its very best, it must be regarded as only a supple- 
ment to the action of the educative forces diffused 

92 



COOPERATION WITH COMMUNITY 

through the community. Its success will depend on 
the extent to which it is able to join with these forces 
and work with them. We can say without hesitation 
that the successful coordination and cooperation of 
the school and the community is one of the very im- 
portant problems of present-day education; it is, in 
fact, one of the phases of scientific management in 
that field. Lack of cooperation means wasted energy 
on both sides and a consequent product in the way of 
child-training that is unsatisfactory to school and com- 
munity alike. The need of vital interaction is, more- 
over, especially urgent if the object of education is 
conceived to be something more than mere intellec- 
tual discipline. Social efficiency as an end can be 
attained only through the general recognition of the 
essential relation of all forces which play upon the 
child and influence his development. In this connec- 
tion the words of one school superintendent are sig- 
nificant. "As I see the public education situation at 
present, the public school system has got just about 
as far as it can get, working unaided. There is left 
a great, unreached field, which can be occupied only 
through cooperation with other agencies. The more 
these other agencies get into cooperative action with 
the schools the greater will be the efficiency of school 
work; and increased efficiency will not come to any 
great extent in any other way." 

Tendency Toward Isolating Social Processes. — The re- 
sponsibility for the separation of the educational ac- 
tivities of the school from those of society rests 
largely upon the community itself. It is easy, how- 
ever, to try to shift responsibility. The parent busied 
with the economic problem of the family forgets that, 

93 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

however good the school may be, some of the business 
of child-training remains with the home and the com- 
munity. However far division of labor may be car- 
ried in some lines, it cannot be rendered absolute in 
anything which is largely concerned with social rela- 
tions. A principle is here involved which holds for 
all phases of democratic society. Such a society must 
always be keenly alive to the functions which it dele- 
gates to this or that special person or institution. 
The function of lawmaking and of law enforcement, 
for instance, in a democratic society, cannot be com- 
pletely turned over into the hands of a few individ- 
uals. The law-makers and the law-enforcers are but 
the agents of the social will, and they must follow 
closely its decrees. 

Social Responsibility Essential. — This fact must al- 
ways be clearly appreciated if these agents are to 
act in the real interests of the people. There must 
be all sorts of ways for the will of the people to ex- 
press itself. The expression may sometimes be short- 
sighted and bungling, but if it is a real expression of 
the community or of the state, it is not too high a 
price to pay, for the continuance of democratic insti- 
tutions depends upon the existence of a large body 
of men and women who are alive and responsive to 
all sorts of social needs. It is from this point of 
view that the present-day interest in nominations 
through primaries, in the initiative, the referendum, 
and the recall is of greatest significance. Unless a 
democratic society is an illusion, the defects of all 
such schemes are not inherent, but are rather inci- 
dental phases of their development. In fine, a health- 
ful society must participate, in a general way, at 

94 



COOPERATION WITH COMMUNITY 

least, in all the interests and activities which are need- 
ful for its continued welfare. 

Close Relation of Home and School. — It is manifest 
that the home is, of all the various agencies which 
act upon child-life outside the school, the most deeply 
and directly concerned. It is easy, however, for home 
and school to stand widely apart. The home has its 
economic duties, and these are often insistent and 
leave little time or energy for anything else. On the 
side of the school, the technic and the processes of 
instruction are so elaborately developed that the 
parent usually feels that they are quite beyond his 
comprehension. The school-world becomes one of 
mystery, which he looks at from afar, either with 
awe, intrusting his children to it without question, 
or with distrust and suspicion, just because its meth- 
ods and ideals are unfamiliar to him. 

It is quite natural that there should be aspects of 
the work of the school too technical for the average 
home thoroughly to comprehend. Albeit, it is most 
needful that they have some ground of common un- 
derstanding. The home should have a general ap- 
preciation of the aims of the school as expressed in 
the curriculum and other school exercises. It should 
know, in general, what the school intends to accom- 
plish by teaching and training in the way it does. It 
also should go without saying that the school must 
have a real and not a perfunctory interest in the best 
welfare of each child, and the parent should know the 
school well enough to understand that it does have 
such an interest. 

Value of Mutual Understanding:. — With the confi- 
dence engendered by such a general understanding 

95 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

the home will be in a position to cooperate with the 
school in many ways in realizing its worthy aims; it 
may even do much toward broadening the vision and 
the purpose of the school itself. The reaction of 
home on school and of school on home should make 
for good in both directions. No matter how poor 
the homes and how good the school, or how good 
the homes and how poor the school, this getting to- 
gether should be mutually helpful. 

Their Common Aim. — The common object of inter- 
est is the efficient training of the child, for both home 
and school play a part in the process, and it is of the 
highest importance that they work together and not 
at cross purposes, that there be sympathy and not in- 
difference. From this center of interest many spe- 
cific activities looking toward the betterment of both 
home and school will, and do, naturally develop. 

Need of Cooperation. — The urgent need of coopera- 
tion to-day grows, in part, out of the extension of the 
demands made by and upon the school. As long as 
the school occupied only a small place in the social 
horizon there was scarcely any need for systematic 
effort to bring home and school together. In fact, 
they were once fairly close to one another. When 
the community was small, the teacher was a part of 
it, and was known to all the patrons. All the needed 
cooperation was secured through the informal con- 
tacts between parents and school, which sprang up 
spontaneously. 

Where parents frequently visit the schools of their 
own accord much can be accomplished in the way of 
mutual helpfulness, but too little of this sort of thing 
usually occurs, especially in the case of the large mod- 

96 



COOPERATION WITH COMMUNITY 

ern school. In fact, informal visiting, if indulged in 
by all patrons, might seriously interfere with the 
regular work. But, in actuality, it is impossible for 
many parents to be free to visit the school, even at 
rare intervals. As a matter of fact, there is little 
or no visiting of the school by any parents to inspect 
the regular work of the classes. Some are too busy, 
as they think, and they excuse themselves on the 
ground that supposedly competent teachers have been 
employed to attend to those phases of their children's 
training, and they can best be left to attend to it in 
their own way. Most parents also feel awkward and 
out of place in the school room, and they prefer to 
keep away from it altogether. When they come to 
the school it is usually to the superintendent's or prin- 
cipal's office to consult regarding the child's miscon- 
duct or failure to make proper progress. On all other 
occasions the teachers and school officials are left se- 
verely alone, many parents not even knowing by face 
or name the teacher of their children. 

Home and School Associations. — It is needless to say 
that the school life of boys and girls ought not to 
be so completely separated from home interests and 
sympathies. True, we should not expect or desire 
the parent to enter the school room and assume the 
role of a critic of the teacher's work. The teacher 
ought to know more about his work and how to do it 
than any but the most exceptional parent. There are, 
however, large non-technical questions which the 
parent and the school officers and teachers should 
discuss together and on the proper meeting of which 
much of the welfare and effectiveness of the school 
depends. To provide opportunity for such confer- 

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EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

ences, various associations of parents and teachers, 
or home and school associations, or parent-teacher 
clubs have been organized in many parts of this 
country. 

Their Function. — The function of these associations 
is, first of all, to get the teachers and parents ac- 
quainted. To bring them together merely in an in- 
formal, social way is a good thing. Such meeting 
together softens prejudices, enkindles kindly regard, 
and a spirit of readiness to help one another, such as 
can be secured in no other way. On the basis of the 
common understanding and acquaintance thus engen- 
dered, the Parent-Teacher Association can reach out 
and do many things to further the effectiveness of 
the school. It becomes a means, in the first place, 
of enlightening the parents as to the aims of the 
school, and of informing the parents as to ways in 
which they can help the school accomplish its pur- 
poses. 

This is especially needful to-day in those communi- 
ties where there is a large foreign element. It is of 
the utmost importance that these strangers within our 
gates should know what our American schools are 
striving to do for American children. The course of 
study needs to be explained, and where, as in the 
upper grades, there are different courses of study, the 
respective aims of each need to be discussed. The 
relation of school training to vocation can be set forth 
and the foundations of effective work in vocational 
guidance can be laid. Where home work is required 
by the school the nature and amount can be explained, 
and the parent can be made to see in what ways he 
can make this home work really beneficial to his chil- 

98 



COOPERATION WITH COMMUNITY 

dren. One of the greatest goods that can come from 
such explanations is the development, in the home, of 
a spirit of sympathy and assistance toward the school. 
The existence of such a spirit the children are quick to 
detect, and it has much to do with their taking school 
requirements seriously. They realize that their pa- 
rents and their teachers are working together. Where 
there is any suspicion of cross-purpose or of indiffer- 
ence of one toward the other, the pupil is ready to 
take advantage of it. 

Value of the Parent-teacher Association. — It is easy 
for the Parent-teacher Association to pass beyond 
these narrower problems of school policy and con- 
sider many questions of child welfare, which are 
quite as much problems of the community as of the 
school. In doing so, the progressive school does not 
pass beyond its legitimate sphere. It should be actively 
interested in all that has to do with the welfare of 
children. By no possible twist of logic can the proper 
interest of the educator be confined to the narrow 
problems of the school-room. The general well-being 
of the children of the community is as much the con- 
cern of the school as is their progress in the narrower 
school tasks. The one inevitably reacts on the other. 

Intelligent teachers should be able to suggest many 
ways of bettering the conditions of child-life and con- 
sequently improving the school work. Not merely 
can teachers suggest such things, they can actively 
cooperate with parents in bringing them to pass in 
the community. 

We have here the second function of the Parent- 
teacher Association, namely, that of actually endeav- 
oring to uplift the community itself as a basis for 

99 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

the working out of a more effective school program. 
The school can actively cooperate with the more intel- 
ligent parents, not only in making better conditions 
for child growth, but also in enlightening and train- 
ing the less intelligent parents. Such problems as that 
of children's savings, the nickel theater, development 
of responsibility through some regular home duties, 
the child's play hours, the home garden, how to coun- 
teract the vicious influences of the modern city, prob- 
lems of food, clothing, fresh air, sleep, care of teeth, 
suitable reading for children, moral training, regular- 
ity of school attendance, etc., have all been taken up 
and profitably discussed by parents and teachers. 
Even parents of more than average intelligence may 
often be helpfully enlightened on some of these 
matters. 

Results Accomplished. — As to actual results accom- 
plished, much might be reported. In some places, for 
example, these associations have secured the proper 
guidance of the pupils' social and athletic activities. 
In other places better equipment for the schools has 
been secured, either through the board of education, 
or through a general appeal to the people. School 
spirit has been improved, parents and teachers are 
led to know each other. Some communities report 
that tardiness has been diminished thereby and the 
necessity of discipline reduced one-third. They have 
been partly responsible in various places for the cur- 
few, for increasing interest in the supervision of play- 
grounds. Buildings have been furnished with pic- 
tures and libraries, many schools have gone far toward 
becoming real social centers of their communities. 
One state president reports that, through the influ- 

ioo 



COOPERATION WITH COMMUNITY 

ence of these clubs, the tie between the schools and the 
communities is yearly growing stronger. Flags, 
pianos, and victrolas have been secured for schools, 
picnics, basket suppers, etc., have been arranged. 
Even needed legislation has been secured, and the 
active support of the administrative officers in many 
matters related to the increased efficiency of the 
schools has been obtained. 

In other places sanitary drinking fountains have 
been installed through the help of these associations, 
school gardens have been established, money has been 
raised for the improvement of roads leading to the 
school, laws against selling cigarettes to minors are 
enforced, and town "clean-ups" and sane Fourth-of- 
July celebrations secured. These are natural and tan- 
gible results, and many more might be mentioned, 
but they are probably less significant than the deeper 
spiritual values which are the outcome of the coopera- 
tion of school and home. "That children thrive under 
the new and sympathetic relation of home and school 
induced by these meetings is shown by the fact that 
they almost always urge their mothers and fathers to 
attend. One mother said that before the school had 
parents' meetings her children never wanted her to 
come because she was poorly dressed, but now, seeing 
her a part of the meeting, and probably experiencing 
a newly sympathetic attitude on the part of the teacher 
and a more intelligent understanding of the school 
on the part of the mother, they have urged her to 
come, clothes or no clothes, and have really seemed 
to have more respect for her opinions." * 

* Statement furnished by The National Congress of 
Mothers. The author is indebted to Mrs. E. H. Weeks of 

IOI 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

It is usually found that the getting together of 
the parents involves little extra labor for anyone. 
The children themselves often write the invitations 
and carry them home. The programs of the meet- 
ings usually consist of a short talk or paper on some 
subject vital to child-welfare followed by free dis- 
cussion. Sometimes simple refreshments are served 
in the social half hour which follows. There may be 
musical programs, or other forms of entertainment 
occasionally. 

Various Methods. — Great diversity exists as to plans 
and methods. In some places only one or two meet- 
ings a year are provided, and these mainly that the 
parents and teachers may get acquainted. In others 
the meetings are more frequent, sometimes even 
monthly, and on Friday afternoons or evenings. Suc- 
cess, of course, demands leadership, and this may 
come either from the side of the school or the home. 
The general experience is that most teachers will 
heartily cooperate when they find that it imposes 
little extra labor upon themselves. This is especially 
true in certain states and cities where the work is 
well organized. In the state of Washington, for ex- 
ample, a Parent-teacher Bulletin is published : Boston 
has a Home and School News-letter. Los Angeles 
has 1 08 of these associations, united in a central or- 
ganization. The Superintendent of Schools writes : 
"The Parent-teacher Associations of Los Angeles 
city have exercised a very remarkable influence for 
good by intelligent and sympathetic cooperation with 
the board of education, superintendents, principals, 

the Publication Committee of this organization for valuable 
assistance in gathering data for this chapter. 

102 



COOPERATION WITH COMMUNITY 

and teachers, in work directly and indirectly related 
to the public schools." 

Advantages Mutual. — It is not assumed that the ad- 
vantage has been all on the side of the parents. The 
teachers may be quite as much helped as the parents. 
In fact, nothing will so tend to vitalize the teacher's 
work and raise it above the perfunctory level as to 
get an occasional glimpse beyond the school-room upon 
the broad human problem of which the school-work 
is only a part. As one student of the subject writes: 
"The teacher, somewhat overbalanced by too much 
dwelling on system and curriculum, finds her sympa- 
thies refreshed by coming into contact with the home- 
relations of the children. She realizes more vividly 
the conditions under which they must work at home, 
makes fairer allowances for shortcomings, and is 
often able to suggest changes that are most helpful 
to her charges. Even the untrained parents can give 
good common-sense advice, and the contact of such 
parents with the trained mind of the teacher is of in- 
calculable value to the home." 

Current Criticism of Schools. — A great hue and cry 
is being raised to-day through the popular maga- 
zines about the inefficiency of our American public 
schools. Their training is said to be abstract and far 
removed from any of the vital needs of present-day 
social life. Boys and girls, completing the common 
school and high school course, are said to be prepared 
for nothing. They are not enabled through their 
school training to enter into any vocation within or 
without the home. Any success the boy attains in 
business or industry or any proficiency the girl shows 
for home-making duties is said to be attained by ave- 

103 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

nues outside the school walls rather than within them. 
Of course these criticisms, though in a measure true, 
are one-sided. The public has an exaggerated idea of 
what can be accomplished in the way of specific voca- 
tional training in the years of childhood and early 
youth. The main part of the child's business in these 
years is to grow unhampered by economic necessity. 
Nevertheless there is no justification for ignoring 
altogether these criticisms. The school has its grave 
shortcomings, of which teachers as a whole are about 
as keenly conscious as is the world outside, if not 
more so. For these shortcomings, however, it is not 
merely the teachers and the appointed administrators 
of public instruction who are to be held responsible, 
but society as a whole. 

Schools Represent Community Development. — The 
schools are usually on a par with the social body 
that supports them. If they are narrow and short- 
sighted in their method and range of work, they are 
probably not more so than are the other institutions 
and forms of social activity. The general improve- 
ment of the schools is bound up with the improvement 
of society and with the development of a higher so- 
cial intelligence. The schools are, therefore, much 
more the expression of the social will and of social 
intelligence than the critics in the public press usually 
seem to imagine. With all their defects, as well as 
their excellencies, they are bound up with the social 
and intellectual life of their communities. If their 
methods are inadequate, and, if the studies are lack- 
ing in vital appeal to boys and girls, it is in part a 
phase of the imperfection of modern social life. 
Collective life has increased in bulk out of all 

104 



COOPERATION WITH COMMUNITY 

proportion to the development of the more delicate 
coordinating machinery which alone can render bulk 
effective and worth while. We are socialized ade- 
quately only in spots. There is a general lack of 
ability to put into effective play the good ideals that 
most people have. Hence it is not strange that much 
of the effort expended, not merely in the school, but 
also in other lines of social activity — for example, 
in the church, the lodge, labor unions, and charities — 
fails in many ways to accomplish the full good at 
which it aims. We must think of the retardation of 
the children in their grades, their rapid elimination, 
as the upper limit of compulsory school attendance 
is reached, and the general lack of interest in the 
work and lack of sympathy of school with life as 
evidence, not so much of wrong ideals, as of the un- 
wieldiness of the social machinery. 

Parent-teacher Association Can Increase Educational 
Efficiency. — It would seem that not the least impor- 
tant thing to be done in the effort to overcome these 
conditions would be the bringing of parent and teacher 
together in such associations as have been described 
above. Their object is to acquaint the teacher with 
the home, and the home with the teacher and the 
school, and to establish cooperation where now there 
is indifference, if not active antagonism. They intro- 
duce the teachers into an active participation in com- 
munity problems, and the parent is enabled, not merely 
to appreciate what the school is doing, but to under- 
stand more intelligently its shortcomings. There is 
not one thing more needed for the betterment of the 
schools than that the parents should see at first hand 
the actual conditions of that work and should discuss 
8 105 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

it with the teachers and other school officers. The 
reaction of an enlightened public sentiment will do 
much to better many phases of the school work, phases 
that the community would never appreciate, nor in- 
deed sanction until they see for themselves and have 
the need explained to them by the teachers and other 
school officers. 

The National Organization. — The movement for Pa- 
rent-teacher Associations has had many independent 
beginnings in different parts of the country, but so 
important and so widespread has their value proved to 
be that a national organization has recently been 
formed, having as its aim the systematic development 
of such associations everywhere. The only prerequis- 
ite for success in any community seems to be that a 
few live teachers or patrons shall wish for such an 
association, and the national organization stands ready 
to advise how to get started and how to conduct along 
lines that have been proved to be successful. Two 
types of meetings are suggested for these associa- 
tions, one in which all parents and teachers of a 
school come together "for a social time and to hear 
and discuss a paper or short lecture on some subject 
of mutual interest", and another, in which each grade 
teacher meets the mothers of her particular group of 
children. One practical worker regards the individual 
grade meeting as "the very foundation of a successful 
parents' association for it is here that we work out 
our ideals and accomplish that intimate intercourse 
between mother, teacher, and child, which is so vital 
to the work". It is on the basis of the interest 
aroused in these grade meetings that the fathers' 
sympathies are enlisted, and thus both parents are in- 

106 



COOPERATION WITH COMMUNITY 

duced to attend the larger evening meetings of the 
entire association. 

The Home and School Visitor. — An important ad- 
junct of the associations of parents and teachers in 
some cities, particularly in Boston, is the Home and 
School Visitor. It was found that many parents, 
especially those most needing to do so, could never 
attend the meetings at the schools. The Boston re- 
port says : "The school visitor is an interpreter from 
the school to the home and the home to the school." 
The opportunity for usefulness open to an expert 
worker is, of course, very great, especially where the 
foreign element is large. Homes are studied, difficult 
children looked up and all sorts of problems of physi- 
cal and moral hygiene are met. 

The Master of one of the schools reports : "The 
Visitor enlightens parents, where necessary, respect- 
ing the work and requirements of the school, aids 
teachers on request to a fuller understanding of the 
pupil, and rescues many a child from a career of de- 
ceit and double dealing. With us, as elsewhere, are 
found unsatisfactory pupils of many different types. 
What of the irritable and ill-conditioned boy? If 
lacking sleep, is it of his own wilfulness, or because 
of possible parental exactions? What of the boy 
who fails in home lessons? Is it his neglect, or be- 
cause of ill-regulated home conditions? And so on 
to the habitually tardy pupil, the untidy, the unkempt, 
the never-to-be-forgotten cigarettist, and many more." 
Such pupils through the ministrations of the school 
visitor may become "subjects for moral recovery". 
The work of a Home and School Visitor can be in- 
trusted only to a person of wisdom and experience. 

107 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

Only matters directly arising in the school are to be 
engaged in, and all conference in the home limited 
to the reasonable necessities of the case in hand. The 
work is undertaken in a spirit of sympathy and help- 
fulness for honest and, it may be, overburdened 
parents." 

Summary and Conclusion. — Enough has been said 
of the value of home and school associations in the 
development of a socially efficient education. The 
underlying need expressed in such organizations is 
that all the forces in a community concerned with 
the education of the boys and girls should maintain 
a real interest in the enterprise, and should have their 
aims and efforts rather definitely correlated. Of 
course this correlation of efforts and aims is not all 
that is needful, but it is one thing that cannot be 
neglected; it is one phase that is vitally essential. 
There is no better way to make the children feel that 
their school training is worth while. Such organiza- 
tion of a community about its educational interests 
will keep these interests in vital touch with life, and 
will go far toward making the work in the school not 
mere preparation for life, but real participation in 
life itself. And, as we have seen, and shall see again, 
in the various phases of our study, the primary need 
is just this. There is no medium or means for train- 
ing in social efficiency that is superior to a natural 
social atmosphere in which each child may fully par- 
ticipate. 






CHAPTER VII 
PLAY AS A FACTOR IN SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

Social Values of Play. — The realization of the so- 
cial ideal in education depends quite as much upon 
healthful play as upon work. The playground, more- 
over, is the immemorial place for learning how to 
live and work with others. Here the idea of "social 
oneness", of group life, develops through team games. 
The conflicts of the playground develop the first no- 
tions of social justice and lawfulness. Here boys 
and girls learn to be leaders and learn how "to play 
the game" against all sorts of odds. We recall that 
when the Duke of Wellington was asked to explain 
his victory at Waterloo, he replied that it had been 
won years before on the playgrounds of Eton. 

Many values attach to play, and they are all of 
more or less significance, in a social way, but most 
of them have been fully set forth by others, and 
hence need not be repeated here. 

It has been truly pointed out that play is, for in- 
stance, a preparation for adult life. For one thing, it 
introduces the child to the meanings of many adult 
activities. It is needful, also, that he may learn to 
use his limbs and his mind readily; needful for physi- 
cal development, for strong muscles, for healthy 
lungs. Play is worth much, also, as a means of rest 
from other forms of activity. It gives an opportunity 

109 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

for the tired mind or body to recover its balance and 
return to more exacting duties with new energy and 
effectiveness. It is the best of all agencies for keep- 
ing alive the joyous, buoyant spirit that all men and 
women need for a truly happy life. All of these op- 
portunities also are of distinct social value, for all 
sound social life must be made up of healthy-bodied 
and healthy-minded individuals. 

It is, however, a more specific relation between play 
and social efficiency that interests us here. Namely, 
the opportunity afforded by play and the playground 
for training in social relationships and for building 
up in boys and girls the best social ideals. For many 
years, even for centuries, a few people have recog- 
nized the educational importance of play, but it is 
only within the last few decades that its individual 
and social worth has been adequately understood, at 
least to the extent of serious and systematic attempts 
to work it out in a general and practical way. 

The Playground Movement. — One of the most strik- 
ing educational phenomena of the last decade has 
been the rapid development of public-school and mu- 
nicipal playgrounds and other recreation centers. The 
movement has been so rapid that it is hardly likely 
that it is, in every case, motivated by a clear apprecia- 
tion of all its social meanings. It is the fashion for an 
up-to-date city to have playgrounds, and so the play- 
ground is installed, whether anyone sees the social 
need for it or not. Probably the most impelling mo- 
tive in their establishment in large cities has been the 
purely practical desire to get children off the streets 
and to lessen, if possible, the tendency to vicious 
types of play and the temptation to crime. Play- 

no 



PLAY AND SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

grounds have actually proved their effectiveness in 
these directions. They have prevented crime by fur- 
nishing play opportunities. They have proved that 
child nature becomes vicious through neglect and not 
through inherent badness. 

Play and Education. — The social meaning of play 
and its place in education present two slightly differ- 
ent phases. One of them is the training in social 
relations, referred to above. The other phase is the 
one now mentioned, namely : that of preventing crime 
through furnishing a safe outlet to youthful spirits. 
Other social values may suggest themselves as we 
consider these main ones. 

It has been pointed out in earlier chapters that 
education for true social efficiency must be modeled 
largely upon the suggestions furnished by community 
life itself. In social matters, as in all else that is 
human, one learns to do by doing. There is no substi- 
tute for the training afforded by actual participation 
in life and its various responsibilities. A truly so- 
cialized education must, therefore, get many of its 
most important ideas of method by going back to 
the spontaneous community life which is back of all 
schools and from which they themselves have sprung. 
Simple neighborhood life is the greatest socializer. 
Here people come into intimate contact with each 
other, and here the most fundamental and most ad- 
mirable of human characteristics may naturally de- 
velop. 

The normal home, with its parents, its children, 
and its natural divisions of labor, also affords many 
suggestions as to what the normal life of the school 
should be. The school cannot completely reproduce 

in 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

family relations, but it can often examine itself with 
reference to the family ideal, and, in this way, de- 
velop its own life along more wholesome lines. In 
proportion as the school recognizes and keenly appre- 
ciates the fact that education is for social as well as 
for intellectual ends will it need to study and utilize 
these socializing forces which exist outside its walls. 
In fact, the work of the school should be largely that 
of selecting the best things which appear thus spon- 
taneously, and developing them to their fullest useful- 
ness. It cannot create mind, or individual power, or 
social forces. It can only study these movements of 
life in children, determine whither they are tending, 
and attempt to give them opportunity for expression 
in profitable directions. 

Need of Attention to Play Life. — No opportunity 
for social training is, then, more significant or more 
effective than that afforded by play, and, if the school 
is to strive toward the ideal of social efficiency, it 
cannot afford to neglect the play-life of boys and 
girls. Like all else that belongs to the child's in- 
formal life play is the soil from which evil, as well as 
good, may spring up. There are manifold opportuni- 
ties everywhere for intellectual training and for moral 
training, but, left undirected, the results are uncer- 
tain and often perverted. So also with the play of 
childhood. It is instinctive and, to a certain extent, 
it may be allowed to take care of itself, but, that its 
possibilities for good may be fully realized, it must 
be made an object of study and of systematic atten- 
tion. 

Most human instincts play an important part in the 
development of normal men and women; that is, 

112 



PLAY AND SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

they are, in a sense, good, or, at least, more readily 
turned to a good end than to an evil end. Not one 
of them, however, but is capable of perversion or 
becoming an agency for great harm. It is worth 
while to note, just because instincts have this value 
for human development, that the good in them is eas- 
ier of attainment than the evil. The first flowering 
of an instinct is nearly always beautiful: it struggles 
awhile to work itself out along right lines, just as a 
tree tends to grow upright, or a plant to produce 
flowers according to its type. However distorted 
the flower or the tree, we can always see the evidence 
of the struggle to follow out its original nature, to 
be straight, or to be beautiful. It is here that we 
get our cue as to the possibilities of play, and to the 
need of its proper cultivation that the normal instinct 
may have a chance to contribute its part to sound 
manhood and womanhood. 

Eudimentary Social Ideals on the Playground. — In the 
life of the playground social relationships and ideals 
appear in rudimentary form. Here we find emerging 
quite spontaneously such fine traits of character as 
loyalty, truthfulness, or good faith, generosity, de- 
votion of one's self to the welfare of a group, respect 
for law and orderliness. All of these qualities are of 
the highest social value. A true education for social 
efficiency must make use of all of them. They appear 
on the playground, even in those incidents that may 
seem to need repression. The dispute or fight of chil- 
dren is not necessarily a bad thing, but even where 
it is, it usually grows out of an attempt on the part 
of the players to secure fairer play; it is their reac- 
tion against injustice, or the infraction of some other 

113 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

instinctive ideal, and what is really needed in such 
cases is such oversight that the children will not be 
too harsh in their efforts to secure justice. 

The influence of the playground upon later life is 
evident in the fact that many of our adult ideals of 
proper human relations continue to be stated in the 
language of the playground, for example, fair play, 
being square, and so forth. 

In play, then, the child gets his first experience 
and training in social virtues outside the family. As 
Cooley says, * "Everyone remembers how the idea of 

justice is developed in children's games. There is 
always something to be done, in which various parts 
are to be taken, success depending on their efficient 
distribution. All see this and draw from experience 
the idea that there is a higher principle that ought 
to control the undisciplined ambition of individuals. 
'Rough games in many respects present in miniature 
the conditions of a society where an ideal state of 
justice, freedom and equality prevails.' 

"The decisions in most of the disputes have behind 
them the obviously social motive of carrying on a 
successful game. The sense of common interest has 
been stretched so as to take the competitive impulse 
itself into camp, domesticate it, and make it a part of 
the social system. The acutely realized fact that a 
society of kickers can never play a game or anything 
else comes to be seen against a background of a pos- 
sibly orderly arrangement of which one has had 
occasional experience, and with which one has come at 
last to sympathize; there comes to be to some extent 



* Social Organisation. 



114 



PLAY AND SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

an identification of one's own interests and purposes 
with the interests and purposes of the whole. Cer- 
tainly the decisions of the group as to whether Jimmy 
was out at first, as to who came out last, and whether 
Mary Ann was really caught, are felt as community 
and not as individual decisions." As another writer 
says : "We are only just beginning to appreciate the 
great significance and value of play as a developing 
and uplifting force in building the character of our 
future citizens. It would be difficult to over-state 
the value of the lesson acquired in organized play, of 
learning to be a 'good loser'. I doubt whether there 
is any lesson that is more essential for a man to learn 
at an early age. In fact, it is in the recreative activi- 
ties that the social nature finds its fullest and freest 
expression. Only when work is laid aside and people 
are mingling in their avocations are the social powers 
at their best." 

Need of Supervision.. — In order that the full educa- 
tional and social values of play may be realized, a 
play director has been found to be most necessary. 
The phrase, "directed play", may seem to some per- 
sons to be a contradiction in terms. How can it be 
real play if it is supervised? Is not the very essence 
of play spontaneous, free activity, joyfully planned 
and carried out by the children themselves? If this 
ideal were actually realized on the undirected play- 
ground, little more need be said, but such is not the 
case. There are all sorts of obstacles to its being 
realized. In the first place children often do not know 
what to play, either because they are actually ignorant 
of good games, or because no one game is familiar 
to a sufficiently large number of children to be played 

115 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

successfully. All children have the same instinctive 
impulse, but what they play they must learn from 
others. "Children, whether savage or civilized, learn 
their games from one another, and from imitating 
and symbolizing adult life." In the stable communi- 
ties of earlier times games and plays from the im- 
memorial past were easily transmitted from one gen- 
eration of children to another. But not so where 
populations are changing. Play traditions are easily 
shattered, and only the poorest games are saved. 
When children from different localities and countries 
come together they soon forget their native sports. 
Their play impulse may be reduced to mere running, 
pushing, or teasing. This is about the situation in 
the average shifting American community. " Ameri- 
can children of to-day are poorer in imagination, 
ideality, and invention than their forefathers; for they 
have lost many of the old games." * 

The situation is even worse among the children of 
the congested districts of the cities. The condition 
described by Miss Kennard, the president of the Pitts- 
burgh Playground Association, is not peculiar to that 
city. The children found there are usually either of 
foreign birth or foreign parentage. "Their new 
Americanism demands complete forgetfulness of the 
old country and its ways. They must adopt the play 
traditions of their adopted country. But what sug- 
gestions of play could they find in a city of iron, 
whose monster machinery rested neither day nor 
night? Their surroundings were ugly and forlorn. 
In many places green things could not grow because 
of the fall of smoke, which swept heavily down, 

* Miss Kennard. 

116 



PLAY AND SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

clouding the sunlight, and leaving a deposit of grime 
on everything, including the children. If the imagi- 
nation is fed by sense impressions, these children 
could have little idea of life other than mere existence 
for the sake of work. Without playground, play- 
traditions, imagination or vitality, we found that these 
children literally did not know how to play." * The 
play director is needed, then, to suggest good games 
to the children and show them how to play them. 
The average child, under the most favorable circum- 
stances, knows but a few of the rich store of games 
which are his heritage from the childhood of the race. 
His only means of getting them is through imitation 
of other children, who are not apt to be better off 
than himself, or through actual instruction. Most 
children welcome such help from an older head. 
What teacher has not had her children gather around 
her with the touching appeal that she tell them some- 
thing to play? 

Leadership also Essential. — Not merely is instruction 
needed, but also leadership. The capacity for lead- 
ership should be developed in boys and girls, but this 
does not always occur when they are left entirely 
alone. A boor or a bully may dominate and exploit 
the playground for his own selfish gratification. The 
"natural leader" is not always the best leader. Then, 
again, while most children appreciate the need of law, 
of order, of taking turns, and, while to some extent 
these matters are adjusted by the children themselves, 
a few selfish ones may, nevertheless, try to keep the 
swings, the teeter-boards, the other opportunities, and 
the best places in the games, if there is not a director 

* Miss Kennard in The Pittsburgh Survey. 

117 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

to interfere. A referee is also needed in the case of 
many of the playground disputes. 

In fine, it is not contrary to the spirit of genuine 
play that it should be supervised. The children prefer 
that it thus be. They find that they have better times 
under a play director. There is, in fact, no more 
reason for failing to supervise play than for leaving 
the child's intellectual development to take care of 
itself. If play-life in the modern community is to 
minister in a large way toward the realization of 
the social ideal it must be sympathetically studied and 
guided by older heads than the children's. 

Democratic Influence of Playground. — Another posi- 
tive social value of the playground lies in the effec- 
tiveness with which it brings together on a common 
level children of different races and social standards. 
We are familiar with the idea that our schools are 
important agencies in the Americanization of the 
children of other lands coming into our midst. In 
the schools they are supposedly brought in touch with 
American modes of thought and American ideals. Is 
it not likely that the developed playground is an even 
more effective agency toward this end ? Foreign chil- 
dren will learn the American point of view and the 
English tongue much more quickly through playing 
with native children than through any of the formal 
instruction of the school. All nations, it is true, are 
alike in their need for play. The ideals of the play- 
ground are more or less alike the world over. This 
common human need and this common mode of its 
finding expression furnish a basis on which children 
of all nations can meet. Surely no better conditions 
than those furnished by play could be desired for 

118 ' 



PLAY AND SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

allaying race prejudice, mitigating social differences, 
and laying the foundations for an appreciation of our 
common humanity. 

We can hardly hope that the American society of 
to-morrow will be identical with that of yesterday. 
Foreign blood is coming to us too rapidly to be com- 
pletely transformed to the American type. We are 
inevitably being modified ourselves. But this does 
not mean that the nation of the future must needs be 
of any lower grade than the original American people, 
provided the best in all these diverse elements can be 
fused into a unified whole. The danger rests in class 
conflict, in lack of sympathy and of understanding, 
in the persistence within our gates of unlike and hos- 
tile elements. The opportunities afforded by organ- 
ized and supervised recreation for accomplishing this 
unification are certainly very great. 

We have referred to the playground as a preven- 
tive of crime. It is significant that the prisons and 
reformatories are largely filled by persons between 
sixteen and twenty- five years of age, the period of 
life when the play-impulse is still strong and when 
the demand for some sort of recreation is most insis- 
tent. Students of social problems are convinced that 
much criminality in these years is simply the perverted 
expression of energy, of the love of activity, and of 
adventure, in a word, of the play-spirit. 

The Experience of Pittsburgh. — Few cities, probably, 
have encountered more difficulties in the development 
of organized play than Pittsburgh, and yet the ex- 
perience of the Playground Association of that city 
should be an inspiration to educators everywhere who 
believe in the social value of play. There were no 

119 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

yards in many districts, and the children did not know 
how to play, or seem to care for it. They were spirit- 
ually starved. Child labor prevailed. The relaxation 
of the boys was in tough predatory gangs, which often 
terrorized whole neighborhoods. A little girl's high- 
est ideal was to be able to ride in the patrol wagon as 
she had seen her mother and father do many times. 

The playgrounds, once organized in these locali- 
ties, have furnished the entering wedge for many lines 
of social betterment. In addition to the play there 
have been organized classes in various sorts of hand- 
work, music and art. Dancing and rhythmic gymnas- 
tics have received much attention that the children 
might learn better control of hands and feet. In 
the summer there are weekly flower days, when great 
baskets of flowers sent to the city from the surround- 
ing country are distributed to the children "from the 
tiniest babies to the roughest boys". 

There are lessons in cooking and dietetics for the 
girls. The child-labor evil has been mitigated, for 
some children had been put to work to keep them off 
the streets. "Little Michel Strozzi's father had put 
him in the glassworks for the summer, but he sent 
him to the vacation school (and playground) more 
than a mile away, where the child, small and delicate 
for his age, ran and jumped and built pyramids with 
other boys, handled tools, made toys, and played with 
an earnestness which expanded his lungs, straightened 
his back, and steadied his active little brain for an- 
other year of effective study. The gang has been 
tamed. The West End Gang, whose ideals had been 
confined to baseball and pugilism, became enthusiastic 
carpenters. Their devotion to the fine, clean, young 

120 



PLAY AND SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

fellow who was their instructor was pathetic. They 
followed him around. In order to cure the sneak 
thieving he would leave all the material out on the 
ball field and go away without making any boy re- 
sponsible for it. The next morning every bat and 
ball and glove would be returned." 

As Jane Addams says : "Much vice is merely a 
love for pleasure." We cannot imagine a boy who 
by walking three blocks can secure for himself the 
delicious sensation to be found in a swimming pool 
preferring to play craps in a foul and stuffy alley, 
even with the natural excitement which gambling of- 
fers." * We continually forget that amusement is 
stronger than vice, and that it alone can stifle the lust 
for it. 

"Every city in the United States spends a hundred- 
fold more money for juvenile reform than is spent in 
providing means for public recreation." f 

The Chicago Playgrounds. — The experience of Chi- 
cago with its playgrounds points to the truth of the 
above statements. They furnish a healthful outlet to 
youthful spirits, and have noticeably diminished juve- 
nile delinquency in the areas which they reach. The 
difficulty is that, notwithstanding the expenditure of 
vast sums for these playgrounds, they are even yet 
only spots, and great districts are as yet entirely un- 
touched. These playless districts are the present hot- 
beds of juvenile crime. One worker says truly: "I 
think it would be difficult to find any point at which, 
in our largest cities, a dollar will go further in the 
making of these things for which the city exists 

* The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets. 
t Ibid. 

9 121 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

than in the provision and maintenance of play- 
grounds." 

Summary and Conclusion. — Taking into account all 
these values of play, we may well say of playground 
expenditure that it is a method of social insurance 
that no nation which seeks to attain the ideal of social 
efficiency can afford to neglect. Whether these ave- 
nues of recreation are administered by the city di- 
rectly, or by the machinery of the public schools, or 
even by private enterprise, they must be regarded as 
belonging to public education in the larger sense, be- 
cause they embody many of those agencies which 
operate to produce a healthful and efficient manhood 
and womanhood. 

As Dr. Gulick well says: "Not only must munici- 
palities and philanthropic associations coordinate their 
efforts in ' some harmonious, comprehensive scheme, 
but the whole plan must be administered by experts 
with definite goals in view. It is not enough to give 
everybody the chance to play. We must also direct 
that play to specific and attractive ends. The ten- 
dency of recreation to be warped from its legitimate 
purpose when left to private adventure is well illus- 
trated in the development of baseball. Our national 
game has produced spectators in a number far out of 
reasonable proportion to the number of players. If 
our boys are going to learn team play; if they are 
going to acquire the habit of subordinating selfish to 
group interests, they must learn these things through 
experience and not from books or the 'bleachers' 
maintained by professional baseball. Such moral de- 
velopment comes only through activities which are 
pursued with spontaneous and passionate enthusiasm." 

122 



CHAPTER VIII 
THE SOCIAL BASIS OF SCHOOL INCENTIVES 

Effort Proportional to Incentive. — Count Tolstoy, in 
his great study of human life and motive, War and 
Peace, pauses in the account of Napoleon's disastrous 
retreat from Russia to raise the question as to what 
determines the efficiency of an army. The French 
were well organized and armed, and yet they melted 
away before the desultory, unorganized attacks of the 
poorly equipped and ungeneraled Russians. Some mil- 
itary authorities, he says, insist that efficiency depends 
upon the leaders, others upon the organization, and 
others upon the armaments. But, according to these 
standards, the French should have succeeded instead 
of being ignominiously defeated. No, the effective- 
ness of an army depends on all of these accessories 
multiplied by an indeterminate "X" which, says Tol- 
stoy, is the desire to fight. The Russians were eager 
to fight, the French were tired of it. 

We have, in this comment of the great novelist 
and philosopher, a recognition of far-reaching im- 
portance of impelling motives for all human endeavor. 
All people, young or old, if they work efficiently and 
with telling result must have some incentive. Few 
of us accomplish as much as we might with the ma- 
terials in our hands and the knowledge we possess 
because of a lack of adequate driving motives. We 

123 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

may see many things we might well do, but the keen 
desire, the eager feeling that it is worth while, does 
not seize us, and we work along in a perfunctory 
manner and with a low degree of efficiency. What 
is true of us in our adult occupations is true in a very 
vital sense of children in their school life. Dr. 
Reeder, in his suggestive book, How Two Hundred 
Children Live and Learn, says: "When I have at- 
tempted to attain certain definite results with children 
and failed I have rarely found the chief cause of fail- 
ure to lie in the children. It generally means that 
the motive for effort or attainment has not been 
adequate. The good was too remote, appreciation of 
its value too slight, or there was lack of personal 
touch and inspiration, so that whatever was necessary 
to energize the full capacity of the child was want- 
ing." 

Incentive Essential in School. — Every teacher of 
boys and girls must have felt at times the truth of Dr. 
Reeder's statement. The lack of a suitable incentive 
is surely one of the main obstacles to good school 
work. W 7 hatever the aim of the teacher, whether to 
train the individual child to be capable for himself 
alone, or to be a useful member of society, that aim 
will be best accomplished if the child, like the Rus- 
sian soldiers, is eager to do the tasks set before him. 

Indeed the problem of adequate motivation is as 
fundamental and as far-reaching in every phase of 
the educational enterprise as it is for the larger rela- 
tions of life which occupy the attention of men and 
women. It is constantly appearing in one form or 
another in the daily routine of the school. Our par- 
ticular interest in that problem is due to the fact that 

124 



BASIS OF SCHOOL INCENTIVES 

it is essentially a social one. The keenest incentives 
to work at one's best one gains through social rela- 
tionships. An education guided by the social ideal 
thus possesses unusually fine opportunities for devel- 
oping in children the most genuine and lasting motives 
for a full measure of individual efficiency. 

Strength of Social Motive. — Dr. Reeder gives a fine 
illustration of the strength and value of the social 
motive. In the orphanage at Hastings-on-the-Hudson 
the children are grouped in cottages and perform for 
themselves much of the work incident to household 
life. The reckless breaking of dishes had proved a 
serious problem in the cottage economy. Neither ad- 
monitions nor fines imposed on the careless seemed 
to avail much in lessening the waste. Money was 
not an important item in the lives of these children, 
and fines, therefore, did not arouse them to greater 
care in handling the china. Finally the rule was 
made that if more than two pieces a week were broken 
in a cottage the excess was to be replaced by plain 
agate ware. This rule substituted a social motive for 
carefulness for the ineffective individual one. The 
effect of this rule was to reduce breakage to less than 
one piece a week. The pride of the cottages was at 
stake. If a child bungled in his work, he did not 
suffer alone, but all his mates suffered with him; the 
breaking of a piece of china was no longer "an in- 
dividual mishap; it was a social offense. The sad 
consequences of his deed were brought home to him 
by many others, who felt that it was a disgrace to 
be obliged to spread their table with agate ware." * 

* How Two Hundred Children Live and Learn, pp. 184-87. 

125 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

Motivation Strengthened Through Community Rela- 
tionships. — A school which is definitely adjusted to 
community needs has gone a long way toward solv- 
ing the problem of motivation. Recent attempts to 
improve rural education, described in preceding chap- 
ters, certainly function in this direction. Every step 
toward bringing the home into closer touch with the 
school, through associations of parents and teachers, 
is also most helpful. Children work better when they 
feel that older people outside the school are vitally 
interested in them and in their progress. The social 
stimulus, whether it develops in the inner life of 
the school, or comes from outer sources, is produc- 
tive of far better results than any artificial induce- 
ment to work. Indeed a real social efficiency will be 
attained largely through the rich motivation that 
comes to boys and girls by their participating in nor- 
mal social relationships. 

From this general statement of the point of view 
we may turn our attention to a brief review of the 
present school situation with reference to motivation. 
The object will be to consider why the problem is to- 
day a particularly important one; what prevailing at- 
titudes in educational theory and practice have been 
responsible for the school's deficiency in this regard 
and to suggest a possible change of emphasis which 
may secure more thoroughly motivated work. 

Problem Only Recently Developed. — Only in com- 
paratively recent times has the need for a more care- 
ful study of school incentives made itself felt. Its 
appearance is indeed one of the incidents of the ad- 
vance in the scope and complexity of modern educa- 
tion. Outside the school, in "real life", there is 

126 



BASIS OF SCHOOL INCENTIVES 

usually plenty of incentive for normally minded boys 
and girls and men and women. There it takes care 
of itself and seldom has to be made an object of care- 
ful planning. 

Within the school, however, the situation is dif- 
ferent. Here the pupil is required to spend a large 
part of his best working hours in a somewhat arti- 
ficial environment, an environment good on the whole, 
but yet lacking in many of the elements that make 
the outer world attractive. In pioneer times this did 
not matter very much, because the school exacted 
little of the pupil's time and energy. Its inadequacies 
were concealed by a simpler and more immediate so- 
cial life, in which the pupil found his enthusiasms, 
and came to a consciousness of worthy life-purposes. 
The dominating theory of this old-time school was 
the receptivity of the child. He was naively regarded 
as a lump of plastic clay to be shaped, or as an 
empty vessel to be filled. As a present-day educator, 
voicing the simple view of the old education, re- 
cently said: "The only thing for the pupil to do is 
to keep the neck of his flask open while the teacher 
fills it." 

We could endure such an educational theory as this 
as long as it did not make itself too obtrusive. It 
was when the educational enterprise was enormously 
enlarged, when it made vast and ever-increasing de- 
mands upon the time of the children and the resources 
of adult society that the deadening effect of this doc- 
trine, its total inadequacy as a means of securing a 
real education became generally apparent. The more 
time and money are spent for education, the more 
critical does the public become of the results, the more 

127 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

does it insist that some adequate and tangible returns 
be shown for the investment. 

Failure of Compulsory School Attendance Laws. — The 
blind faith that compulsory school-attendance laws 
can secure to every child the elements of an educa- 
tion has received a rude shock in the recent revela- 
tions of the extent of retardation among public school 
pupils. It has been found that more than fifty per 
cent, of our children are seriously behind their 
proper grades, and that, in the later years of the ele- 
mentary and grammar school, children are dropping 
out at an alarmingly rapid rate. Retardation of pu- 
pils, together with rapid elimination as the upper 
limit of compulsory school attendance is reached, 
means that only comparatively few of our boys and 
girls get even a useful elementary education. 

Not Due to Inability of Children. — We are loath to 
believe that the inability of our expensive public 
school system to reach the children is due to their 
mental incapacity, and yet, somehow, they do not re- 
spond properly to our studied efforts to train them. 
We know too well the apathy and indifference shown 
by many of them, the perfunctory attention that they 
give to the lessons and tasks which we daily require 
of them. We know that, although they may work 
hard, most of them do not work as hard as they 
might. The hard work in the school does not com- 
pare very favorably with the capacity for hard work 
these same pupils show in their sports, on the ball- 
ground, or in other outside activities. To come at 
once to the point, this difference is due to a lack of 
adequate incentive in the school, to a deficiency in 
inner driving force in the pupil. The work is half- 

i^8 



BASIS OF SCHOOL INCENTIVES 

hearted and therefore naturally barren of much per- 
manent value. 

But to Lack of Incentive. — The real secret, then, of 
much of the retardation and elimination in the grades 
and of the ineffectiveness of the modern school, in 
general, lies in the fact that the development of the 
machinery of instruction has not been accompanied 
by a corresponding development in the pupil of the 
proper motives for work. 

As a recent writer says : "We take boys and girls 
at a time when their impulses are strong for active 
participation in the vital interests of life, and we 
confine them within narrow school-room cells, with 
books and pencils as a chief and sole means of em- 
ployment; we take them when their desire for social 
cooperation is a dominant motive, and we require each 
to work for himself upon tasks, which, so far as we 
can see, have little to do with the great world out- 
side the school walls ; we take them when their indi- 
vidual differences in capacity, interests, and prospec- 
tive careers are matters of growing and vital con- 
cern, and we require them to pursue a uniform course 
of study having little direct relation to these specific 
powers, motives, and prospects." However unsafe it 
may be to make unqualified statements regarding the 
resulting retardation and elimination, we are at least 
forced to the conclusion "that our present methods are 
failing with half the children confided to the care of 
the public schools." "The schools have not only failed 
to awaken in large numbers of their pupils an interest 
in study, but have engendered a distaste for work of 
any kind, particularly manual work." * 

* Quoted by Leavitt, Examples of Industrial, Education*. 

129 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

A Narrow Educational Theory Responsible. — As we 

pass on it may be worth while to see how underneath 
this failure there has persisted a narrow, mechanical 
conception of education. The digression is justifi- 
able, for what is needed at the present time is not 
merely a reform in practice, but a complete recon- 
struction of educational theory. The old conception 
of mental action was mechanical. As economic sci- 
ence had hypostatized the fiction of an "economic 
man" who would automatically go where he could get 
the highest wages, who would sell to the highest mar- 
ket and buy in the cheapest, without regard for count- 
less subtle social and ethical ties, and without regard to 
the inertia of habit and of social custom, so the school- 
man imagined a theoretical pupil on whose organs of 
sense the environment made divers impressions, im- 
pressions which were stored up and associated and 
reproduced according to the mechanical laws of asso- 
ciation. Thus, the teacher was told that if he wanted 
to get a certain response from a certain stimulus he 
must put the stimulus and the desired response to- 
gether. If one idea was to call up another idea, the 
two must be put together in the pupil's mind. In both 
cases, if necessary, there should be a little pleasure to 
serve as a cement. Let him make desirable connec- 
tions pleasant and undesirable connections unpleasant; 
that was all there was to it.* He was told, in season 
and out of season, to proceed from the simple to the 
complex, from the concrete to the abstract, and above 
all to connect the new thing to be taught with the 
pupil's past experience according to the law of apper- 
ception. 

* Cf. Thorndike's Principles of Teaching, pp. no, in. 

130 



BASIS OF SCHOOL INCENTIVES 

Yet, in spite of this fine and theoretically perfect 
conception of how learning should take place, the 
pupil did not always learn what he was supposed to 
learn. He did not remember things in their right 
connections, nor did he do the things he was sup- 
posed to do when the appropriate and neatly worked 
out stimulus was made to affect him, even though 
the teacher put the things together that belonged to- 
gether. The pupil might even, as a high school boy 
actually did, in response to the question, "Locate 
Athens and Sparta", write that they were situated on 
the Tigris River, spelling the river "Tigress". 

If the pupil was seen to be apathetic, or mischiev- 
ous, it was because he lacked interest in his work; 
therefore, the teacher said, "Let us go to and interest 
him". This was a suggestion in the right direc- 
tion, but it was at first conceived merely as a sort of 
external application that would, in some magical way, 
oil up the machinery of the child's mind and make it 
work more freely. 

The fundamental fallacy of this earlier pedagogy 
was that it never took into account the real, living, 
throbbing personality of the pupil. It was so absorbed 
in the laws of association and in the problems of con- 
necting new experience with old experience that it 
failed to see that the desire or purpose of the child 
coidd have anything to do with efficient learning. We 
are beginning to realize that, while the mechanics of 
learning are in a measure true, they have meaning 
only in connection with, and as subordinate to, the 
motive and purpose of the learner. The child is, 
first of all, a personality, and the essence of person- 
ality is purpose, intent, motive. Narrow and limited 

131 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

though this motive may be, it is the real starting point 
of teaching and the real basis of effective learning. 

A Suggestion for Child-study. — From this point of 
view we may remark that the most instructive and 
valuable child-study is that which unites with the in- 
vestigation of the contents of the child-mind and 
child-modes of behavior, the deeper and far more sig- 
nificant question of the development of his purposes, 
the unfolding consciousness of the things he would 
like to do. The contents of his mind are interesting 
and curiously fragmentary, but it matters far more 
for the teacher to know what the pupil would like 
to do, what capacity he has for projecting himself 
into the world. A child-character with plenty of this 
driving power, this eagerness to know and to do, will 
soon make good any initial deficiences in mere mental 
contents. Inadequacy of ideas, for example the no- 
tion that a cow is no larger than one's thumb, be- 
cause that happens to be the size of the picture the 
child has seen, is a mere incident of immaturity and 
of limited experience. Vastly more significant than 
this negative fact is the fact that the child may pos- 
sess an impulse to act, to work, to investigate, to dis- 
cover. This eager, purposive attitude lies at the very 
core of real apperception of new experience by old. 
At first the educational theory put into the hands of 
the teacher assumed that similar experiences had 
some mysterious affinity. The task of the teacher 
was to arouse the old related idea and present the new 
one, and, presto! they would be as one, or at least 
they ought to be, all disturbing circumstances ruled 
out. 

Basis of Interest. — Interest was conceived as a re- 

132 



BASIS OF SCHOOL INCENTIVES 

sultant of this similarity. To arouse interest, stir up 
first the old related idea. We are now beginning to 
see that the first term in the whole process is the 
eagerness. The reaching out of the child to do some- 
thing, the desire to find out, is primary, and assimila- 
tion of the new experience is not the outcome of any 
fancied similarity between the newly presented con- 
tent and the previous content of the mind. In fact, 
the most cunningly worked-out similarities may be 
utterly barren of results. The assimilation of a new 
experience largely depends on whether the learner 
wants the new experience or not; whether he sees 
that it fits into his purposes or not, helps him to do 
something which he feels to be worth while. 

Motivated Effort Counts. — We have, then, in our 
pupils, great potentialities of energy, but to plead that 
this energy should furnish the dynamic force for all 
school work is not equivalent to advocating that it 
be undirected or uncontrolled. We have reached the 
point where we are forced to recognize the absolute 
necessity of a serious and scientific study of incen- 
tives, as well as of methods of imparting information. 
It is not mere work which counts, or mere additions 
to the child's store of knowledge, which a real edu- 
cation must arrive at. A development of vital. pur- 
poses, a systematic cultivation of motives for work 
and for the acquisition of knowledge — this must be 
the guiding principle of all we do. "Mere attendance 
upon school, the mere acquisition of knowledge, does 
not necessarily result in the development of intellec- 
tual power. The performance of daily tasks which 
are perfunctory, or which are too easy for the intel- 
lectual ability of the child, may produce weariness 

133 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

without stimulating growth." "Power and strength 
come from the conservation of energy, and growth, 
after all, is the result of effort. The real problem 
would seem to be to help the child to select the proper 
objective point upon which to direct his energy, to 
stimulate him to continued effort, to the end that his 
fullest growth may be insured." * 

Objections from the Practical Teacher. — The above 
proposition, good as it appears in theory, will seem 
to the average teacher as altogether impractical. He 
will insist that the pupil's own purposes are flighty 
and inadequate. No really valuable education, it will 
be insisted, can be built upon this basis. Will such a 
course not result in the teacher's being led about by 
every whim and fancy of the pupil? To be sure, if 
"the individual child is merely allowed to follow his 
own inclinations, he is no more likely to develop high 
efficiency than the free current of electricity, the bab- 
bling brook, or the vapor that rises from the simmer- 
ing teapot." f Much that must be taught cannot ap- 
peal to him now as a part of anything that is akin to 
the moving power within himself. The best that can 
be done is to arouse him by various devices to a tran- 
sitory interest in his work. 

Irresponsibility Not a Necessary Characteristic of 
Youth. — We have unfortunately accustomed our- 
selves to the idea that boys and girls cannot have any 
wide-reaching, permanent interests in their school 
work. We refer to the irresponsibility and lack of 
seriousness of even the high school pupils as neces- 

* From a "Report of the Committee on School Incentives," 
of the Brooklyn (N. Y.) Teachers' Association, 
t Ibid. 

134 



BASIS OF SCHOOL INCENTIVES 

sary incidents of growth, as a condition to be ex- 
pected and to be made the best of in what way we 
can. We try to devise means of overcoming it tem- 
porarily; we note that some of this irresponsibility 
disappears occasionally in certain phases of the school 
work, or under the influence of a particularly inspir- 
ing teacher; but these occasions are so fragmentary 
and so transitory that they appear to be mere acci- 
dents; they do not suggest to most teachers any far- 
reaching, scientific principle according to which the 
entire school-life of the pupil may be transformed 
and infused with life. 

Due to Isolation of School. — The crux of the diffi- 
culty, as we have already suggested, arises out of 
the isolation of the school from real life. And for 
this isolation educators are not alone responsible. It 
is incidental to our present social system, and it will 
not be adequately met until the public, as well as the 
teachers, begin to understand that a really effective 
child-training cannot be expected to occur on the nar- 
row basis and with the limited means at present pro- 
vided. 

It is not strange that the teacher of to-day is baf- 
fled by the proposition that he base his work more 
largely upon the pupil's own initiative; that he ulti- 
lize more largely the pupil's own motives for work. 
To him there seems no alternative between imposed 
tasks, on the one hand, tempered perhaps by a few 
transitory interests, and, on the other, giving up all 
effort at training and letting the pupil pursue his own 
sweet will. 

The object of entering into this discussion of the 
question of incentives is not to suggest devices by 

135 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

which adventitious motives may be introduced into 
our school-work, schemes by which we may tempo- 
rarily relieve the montony and the ineffectiveness of 
our teaching, while we continue to teach essentially 
as we have always taught. Our purpose is rather to 
develop a principle according to which the whole edu- 
cational procedure may be gradually transformed, and 
for bringing about this transformation there are 
many things we can all do, but, in the main, these 
things must be done in cooperation with an enlight- 
ened public intelligence. 

Basis of Motivation Is Social Life. — The general 
principle is that the work of the school and its life 
must not only be in closer touch with the interests 
and motives of life outside the school, but also that 
it must reproduce within itself more natural and vital 
social conditions. This may seem like a platitude, yet 
it is fundamentally true. 

As was stated in the first of this chapter, real life, 
especially social life, is rich in incentives for all 
normal people, and children, as well as adults, are 
open to its influence. In a thoroughly socialized 
school the problem of incentives assumes a new as- 
pect. It does not cease to present difficulties, but 
the difficulties are such as can be met scientifically 
and with some hope of lasting results. A school 
which is established upon thorough-going social re- 
lations within and without becomes a matrix from 
which all desirable incentives for the best work will 
naturally emerge. 

There has been, in recent years, an increasing 
number of educational experiments which have grown 
directly out of this conception of the basis of ade- 

136 



BASIS OF SCHOOL INCENTIVES 

quate motivation. Unfortunately they are as yet iso- 
lated and fragmentary ; nevertheless, they are gleams 
of light which we may believe presage the dawn of 
a new day. These attempts serve to impress us, 
moreover, with the very great complexity of the mod- 
ern educational problem. To secure adequately moti- 
vated school work, to provide incentives which will 
call forth the best energies of all the pupils, is a prob- 
lem fully as many-sided as life itself. 

Retrospect and Prospect. — To bring the school into 
closer touch with life involves, then, the doing of 
many things. The content of the curriculum itself 
must be more directly based on the prevailing inter- 
ests, activities, and problems of living civilized com- 
munities. The things which the child is required to 
learn must function more immediately in his daily 
life. The activities and enterprises of the adult are 
not remote or foreign to the child. When he is 
brought face to face with them his enthusiasm and 
interest are easily aroused, unless he has been de- 
bauched by a long course in irresponsibility, either in 
school or in an abnormal family or environment. 

In the chapters which follow we shall take up 
various phases of school activity, with a view to de- 
termining how they may be more completely social- 
ized. In every development of social values we shall 
find more favorable conditions for properly moti- 
vated work on the part of the children, whether it be 
in the healthier social life of the school, in a curricu- 
lum which has vital connections with the world out- 
side, or in the method of instruction in which a more 
definite recognition is given to the natural stimulating 
influence of one pupil upon another. 
10 137 



CHAPTER IX 

THE OPPORTUNITY AFFORDED BY THE 
INTERNAL LIFE OF THE SCHOOL 

Education and Life Cannot Be Divorced. — "Educa- 
tion is not preparation for life, it is life," said Pro- 
fessor Dewey, in his "Educational Creed". It is be- 
cause of their conviction that this is true that many 
earnest teachers have, in recent years, given more and 
more attention to the general social life of their 
schools. They see quite clearly that preparation for 
life and living itself cannot be separated. The best 
preparation for the life of to-morrow is to live com- 
pletely to-day, meeting its opportunities to the fullest 
extent of one's ability. 

This recognition that education is life itself car- 
ries with it the recognition that school education can- 
not confine itself to the training of the pupil's mind 
in isolation from his social relationships. It must 
train the whole child. There is no warrant for as- 
suming that one phase of child-nature is any less in 
need of training than other aspects, or, specifically, 
that a child needs less training in his social relations 
than in his intellectual processes. 

As we have said, one of the popular current con- 
ceptions of the end of education is social efficiency, 
and yet, with most teachers, it is a mere verbalism, 
having no direct relation to the actual work of the 

138 



INTERNAL LIFE OF THE SCHOOL 

school. The teacher is usually content to think that, 
if he trains the boy in the ordinary school studies, 
he is training him to be an efficient member of society. 
The penetrating observer, however, sees that this is 
not the case. The training for a truly socially effi- 
cient manhood or womanhood must include, at every 
step of the process, the whole child in all his rela- 
tionships. 

Our public school work to-day is being subjected 
to a rapid-fire criticism of a most searching order. 
Some of it is unintelligent and foolish, but some of it 
must be seriously faced. That a good deal of school 
work from the beginning to the end does not make 
for vital contact with the child and with the youth, as 
we have already indicated, is fairly evident. How 
else can we explain the fearful waste involved in re- 
tardation and in dropping out that prevails every- 
where. We can scarcely say that all our over-age 
pupils, or those who drop by the wayside, are of in- 
ferior intelligence. Some of them are, no doubt, but 
for many, the work of the school is so abstract and 
unrelated to the interests of life that it fails to grip 
them in any impelling way. 

School a Social Institution. — To meet this situation 
is no easy matter. No one patent nostrum, no one 
royal road will be sufficient, and yet, perhaps, the 
most far-reaching remedy is to appreciate the fact 
that the school is a social institution, and to work this 
out consciously and systematically in our practice. 
This conception of the school, if realized, demands 
the doing of many things. It demands, for one thing, 
a curriculum that shall more definitely prepare for 
vocations, and that shall, as a whole, appeal to chil- 

i39 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

dren as helping them to understand and act intelli- 
gently in the great world outside the school's walls. 
It demands also the recognition of the fact that the 
boys and girls within the school have a social as well 
as an intellectual nature. The first one of these de- 
mands we shall reserve for discussion in succeeding 
chapters. The latter need, the recognition of the 
importance of the general social life of the pupils in 
the school, we shall consider here. 

Two Reasons for Recognizing This Fact. — The syste- 
matic study and development of the social life of the 
school is necessary for two reasons : It is needed to 
render the strictly intellectual training more interest- 
ing, more vital, and more effective. Secondly, it is 
needed because all boys and girls are quite as much 
in need of training in proper social relationships as 
in intellectual processes. In fact, the two cannot be 
separated. In all normal growth both phases must 
be concurrent; each one will supplement the other. 

All School Life Social. — Every school has a social 
life of some sort. People of any age, and especially 
of the high-school age, cannot be brought together 
day after day without developing manifold social re- 
lationships, without influencing each other in all sorts 
of ways, for better or for worse. The question is 
whether this obvious tendency is to be officially rec- 
ognized and used as an educational opportunity, or 
whether it is to be ignored or suppressed. If we im- 
agine we can take either of these latter courses, we 
deceive ourselves. To attempt it is to run the risk of 
transforming a precious educational opportunity into 
an opportunity for almost any amount of harm to the 

youth. 

140 



INTERNAL LIFE OF THE SCHOOL 

The attitude of school men and women has passed 
through several well-marked stages. First there was 
the spontaneous, uncontrolled social life of the pupils, 
existing but ignored, or energetically suppressed. 
Then the idea came that these social activities should 
be controlled so that they might not interfere 
with the primary and legitimate functions of the 
school. They were looked upon as evils, but as neces- 
sary evils to be curbed. This is about as far as most 
school administrators have gone. In some quarters, 
however, the conviction is assuming definite shape 
that this social life must not only be controlled, but 
also that it is part of the function of public education 
to develop it, and make it a positive, uplifting force 
in the work of educating boys and girls. 

Social Tendencies of Children Spontaneous. — Let us 
first of all try to get a clear conception of the nature 
and character-forming influence of the spontaneous 
social tendencies of children. We must carefully de- 
fine our problem. We do not here have in mind the 
obvious and important fact that every child is from 
birth surrounded by people and that the whole course 
of his mental development is determined by his hu- 
man associations. This sort of social influence exists 
for all ages and circumstances of life, for little chil- 
dren, as well as for older ones. We have in mind, 
rather, the sociable, group- forming tendencies which 
are not apparent in the earlier years, but which gradu- 
ally and quite spontaneously appear, and become more 
and more marked as childhood turns into youth. 

Early Evidences. — Children, before the school age 
and in their first years in the elementary grades, show 
little of the group spirit. They play together, it is 

141 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

true, and work together, and are subject to all sorts 
of mutual influences, but, as far as social spirit is con- 
cerned, they are little individuals. In the play each 
one looks out for himself. In their school work they 
sit side by side in classes and yet are concerned only 
with individual attainment. A low form of group life 
docs appear in the elementary school, and it may be 
regarded as the beginning of the more social rela- 
tions of later years. This is little more than a primi- 
tive mob spirit. Occasions of excitement or of dan- 
ger may transform a roomful of little children into 
an unreasoning and uncontrollable mob. 

Gradually, also, the sense of being a part of a 
school dawns upon the child. For instance, a school 
exhibition or entertainment is arranged and each pupil 
feels that it is a collective undertaking and takes 
pride in the impression made by his room or by his 
school. The individual pupil feels more and more 
keenly what his classmates say and think about him. 
He wants to do as the rest do. He tries to use the 
same language as his playmates. He has a keen con- 
sciousness of trying not to be different from them. 
ITe is careful not to don an overcoat sooner than the 
other boys do. If he is compelled by his parents to 
use mittens before the proper time, he will carefully 
conceal them before he comes near the school 
grounds. In his earlier years he never thought of 
such things, nor did any of his companions. At first, 
moreover, he was glad to have his father or mother 
visit his school, but, by the time he is nine or ten, he is 
plainly embarrassed if they should appear in his room, 
simply because it is not common for parents to 
visit the school, and the other children will smile at 

142 



INTERNAL LIFE OF THE SCHOOL 

him, or make trifling remarks about his own depend- 
ence on his parents. This early self -consciousness 
marks the dawning of his social consciousness. A 
school atmosphere, a school sentiment, gradually 
grows up in his mind and shapes his whole behavior. 
In spite of its crudity it develops into a very definite 
sense of loyalty to his companions or to his school. 

Clubs, Team Games, and Gangs. — In these years of 
nine and ten, little playground groups tend to spring 
up quite of their own accord. Group games and rudi- 
mentary team games begin to be played. Both boys 
and girls begin to find that there are things they are 
interested in in common, and they tend to associate or 
"chum together" more and more. This group-form- 
ing instinct soon begins to show itself away from the 
school grounds among boys in the development of 
gangs. The gang is often little more than the fortui- 
tous grouping of boys who live in the same neigh- 
borhood or upon the same city block; those who, in 
other words, are constantly thrown together in work 
and play. Through this daily contact a definite esprit 
de corps grows up, a sense of social solidarity, of 
tremendous power in impelling its members to stand 
together. The gang possesses a group courage and 
daring for all sorts of enterprises, good and bad, 
which no boy would undertake by himself. 

Basic Significance of Rudimentary Social Groups. 
— These early groupings are but the foreshadowings 
of those elementary forms of social life which lie at 
the basis of all human society. They have been aptly 
called "primary groups", and may be most readily 
illustrated by the associations involved in the family, 
the neighborhood, the playground, and all sorts of so- 

143 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

cial and fraternal and religious organizations. These 
are the units out of which is built the larger whole 
of society. They are primary, as Cooley says, * be- 
cause they are essentially the same the world over, 
notwithstanding differences in race, nationality, or in 
form of government. They are also primary because 
they are the "nurseries of human nature" ; they fur- 
nish the conditions in which the child gets his first ex- 
periences of human nature, in which, in fact, his own 
human nature is first formed and built up. They are 
not by any means ideal in all respects, but they come 
nearer to being ideal than any of the larger and more 
loosely knit social groups, such as cities, states, or 
nations. The intimate, face-to-face association, which 
necessarily exists within these little groups, gives the 
child his first experience in social unity or "oneness" 
with his fellows. 

Still following Cooley's admirable discussion we 
may say that this sense is the mother of all social 
and hence of all human virtues, for social solidarity 
can exist only as it is supported by a certain sense of 
loyalty, a certain regard for lawfulness, and a due 
respect for individual freedom. To be loyal to one's 
group means that a man must be truthful to his fel- 
lows; he must be ready to serve them, even against 
his own individual interest, nor can he be loyal to his 
group except as he experiences more or less kindly 
regard for its other members. These are fundamental 
human virtues which one is not born with and which 
one cannot acquire except through fellowship in a 
"primary group". 

We need not pause here to give illustrations of the 

* Social Organisation. 

*44 



INTERNAL LIFE OF THE SCHOOL 

reality of primary group virtues. Every family, if it 
is in truth a family, every neighborhood and play- 
ground will furnish evidence to him who takes the 
pains to look. No boys' or girls' club, or even the 
worst gang, could hold together for a moment ex- 
cept as its members have some sense of their unity, 
some regard for law, for fair dealing, for kindliness 
among themselves. These fine qualities within the 
group may be coupled with much that is unlovely, 
especially in the group's treatment of those who are 
without its pale, but they furnish the basis, the raw 
material, for all possible improvements in the relations 
of men and women, whether on a small or on a large 
scale. 

Relation to the Social Ideal. — When we reflect that 
these group-forming tendencies are strong in children, 
especially as they approach the high school age, we 
can see what an immense educational opportunity they 
can afford for the realization of the ideal of social 
efficiency. The school has tended to deal with its 
children as individuals, when they are in reality social 
beings. It has tried to train them as individuals in 
the virtues of truthfulness, justice, loyalty, fair-play, 
and lawfulness. As abstract statements these mean 
nothing to children, but, when illustrated by the inti- 
mate associations of the playground, gang, club, or 
school itself, they stand out with convincing force. 
It is not so necessary, however, as a first step, that 
children shall have these desirable qualities of con- 
duct pointed out to them ; it is far more essential that 
they shall have abundant opportunity of actually ex- 
periencing them in association with one another un- 
der the wise supervision of parents and teachers. 

T 45 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

Every school which sets up social efficiency as its 
ideal must, therefore, recognize and encourage the 
group-forming instincts of its children, through which 
they will learn much that will make them well-rounded 
men and women. 

Various Aspects of School's Social Life. — The social 
life of the school has naturally several phases which 
must be recognized by the teacher who wishes to 
make it a valuable educational asset. In the first 
place, there is the school as a whole, which is itself a 
"primary group", if it is not over large. In that 
case, it can easily be subdivided into natural groups 
of rooms and classes. In the next place, there are, 
even in small schools, the still smaller groups or 
clubs, which are knit together by some common even 
though temporary interest. The training in social re- 
lationships must center, if possible, about the school 
as a whole. The sense of "our school" should be 
built up and nurtured in various ways, as an impor- 
tant basis for cooperative undertakings, and as a 
means of developing in all the children a sense of 
loyalty and lawfulness, all so needful in adult so- 
ciety. The morning assembly, the entertainment, the 
public exhibition of the school's work, and, best of 
all, the festival, varying with the season of the year, 
a cooperative activity in which each individual group 
in the whole school may participate in varying ways 
— all these are to-day increasingly utilized in progres- 
sive schools as educative agencies of a high order. 

Subordinate Groups. — The school or room unit will 
naturally differentiate into various subordinate units 
which will provide for more intimate association and 
for the fuller satisfaction of kindred interests. Thus, 

146 



INTERNAL LIFE OF THE SCHOOL 

every school tends to have its athletic, literary, cam- 
era, and dramatic clubs, its debating societies, its band, 
orchestra, and chorus, and many others, according 
to the size and make-up of the student body. All such 
subordinate organizations may be "primary groups" 
of the very greatest value to the pupils. They afford 
abundant opportunity for practical experience in the 
social virtues described above. It is, however, of the 
utmost importance that all such clubs should feel 
themselves but parts of "their school", and should feel 
that their special opportunity to follow their own in- 
terests does not give them the right to act selfishly 
or without public spirit. Their interests are but dif- 
ferentiations of the general school interests, and they 
constantly owe it to the school to bring back to it 
some contribution of their own. They must feel that 
all the school is interested in what they, in separate 
groups, are doing, and that all have a right to par- 
ticipate in their accomplishment. Whatever they do, 
they do not only for their own satisfaction, but be- 
cause it contributes to the honor and efficiency of the 
collective life. 

Social "Functions." — We must not forget the par- 
ties and social functions of the school and of the class- 
es as a further means of social training. To deal prac- 
tically with this phase, as well as with all the preceding 
aspects of social life in the school, demands a clear 
recognition of the needs involved. On the negative 
side there is need of control, because of the almost 
certain tendency of boys and girls in their teens to 
go to excess in social matters. To control does not 
mean to depreciate, but to see to it that the social life 
shall be beneficial by making it well balanced. On 

H7 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

the positive side there are several aspects. First, the 
general need that all boys and girls shall have fair 
opportunity for training in social relationships; that 
some shall not be thrust to one side and a few monop- 
olize all the advantages. This is most apt to occur 
where there are not definite attempts on the part of 
the school authorities to supervise and actually to de- 
velop the school's social life. The ones who are least 
in need of such phases of training are most likely to 
get it all. They will even tend to exploit the whole 
school for their own selfish benefit. There are always 
a large number of backward, self-conscious boys and 
girls, who need to be brought out and given oppor- 
tunity to participate in the school's social pleasures 
and activities. They need it, not merely that they 
may enjoy their high school life fully, but also that 
they may be well rounded and socially efficient men 
and women. 

In the second place, all these high school youths, 
and particularly the aggressive ones, need training in 
social cooperation and in social unselfishness. Group 
life, a social consciousness of some sort, is, as we have 
seen, inevitable. It is also natural and inevitable that 
these adolescents should experience a genuine desire 
to find themselves in a larger life of some sort. They 
crave a larger life than the merely personal. They 
are eager to live in some sort of atmosphere of social 
regard and social appreciation. They experience the 
utmost readiness to sacrifice narrow personal interest 
for the good of the group to which they feel them- 
selves to be vitally related. These adolescent impulses 
are perfectly normal phases of human development. 
There is nothing about the youth that is finer or of 

148 



INTERNAL LIFE OF THE SCHOOL 

more ultimate worth to him as a man than just these 
desires. They may, however, fail utterly to bear 
good fruit, if left to work themselves out undirected. 
The greatest danger is that they find expression only 
in a narrow group and that the larger welfare of the 
school be ignored. The trouble with most adult life 
is not that it is unsocial, but that it is social in only 
limited relations and within narrow groups of people. 
We are most of us, for instance, loyal enough to our 
friends or to our narrow social circle, but we have 
not learned to use this loyalty in any large way. 
Kindliness, truthfulness, honesty, lawfulness, and jus- 
tice, are fairly common traits of human nature when 
that is confined to a small circle of friends with mu- 
tual interests. But, if they are ever to play any part 
in the larger circle of life in the city, in the state, in 
the nation, it must be through education. 

The Need Summarized. — The need, thus stated, may 
be summarized briefly thus : All normal boys and 
girls, whatever their future vocations, will necessarily 
be thrown into contact with other people. They must 
know how to live and work with others if they are 
to be happy and efficient They must know how to 
talk freely and without affectation. They must know 
how to persuade, and how to yield to persuasion 
graciously. They must clearly appreciate the rights 
of others; they must be able to merge their own nar- 
row interests in that which is for the interest of soci- 
ety as a whole. They must learn that a moral life and 
happy life is to be attained only through submitting 
to the restrictions and conventions of society; that 
these conventions of social life are to be submitted 
to gladly, because they are safeguards of their own 

149 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

personal well-being, as well as of that of their asso- 
ciates. 

How Far Its Urgency Is Recognized. — So much for 
the need. In order to determine the extent to which 
this need is recognized a little investigation was re- 
recently undertaken in the high schools of a Middle 
Western state. To all schools having approximately 
one hundred pupils, letters were sent out, about one 
hundred twenty-five in all. These letters inquired only 
as to the status of "social functions" in a somewhat 
limited sense. Principals were asked to tell just what 
standing such functions had in their general school 
program, whether the students tended to go to ex- 
cess in social matters or not, the extent to which they 
were supervised by the school authorities, and 
whether any definite attempt was made to develop 
such occasions into real and valuable educational as- 
sets. 

Only about thirty principals responded to this in- 
quiry. While many of the failures to reply may 
have been due to the natural indisposition of people 
to bother with circular letters, it is fair to assume 
that a goodly portion of those not replying were not 
vitally interested in the question. In their minds there 
was no problem. Doubtless many shared the feeling 
of two who did reply, one to the effect that "he had 
no use for any such thing", and the other that there 
was "too much blamed social life already". 

The thirty answers bring out much of interest to 
one who believes that there is a problem and cares to 
study it. These answers may be regarded as fairly 
typical of the prevailing attitudes of high school 
principals. Nine principals, or thirty per cent., show 

150 



INTERNAL LIFE OF THE SCHOOL 

an active interest in the questions, and five of the 
nine are really doing something to meet them. Five 
show only a slight appreciation. Eleven show none 
at all; and two are hostile to everything of the sort. 
Fourteen report a definite tendency in their pupils to 
go to extremes in all social matters; sixteen see no 
excessive manifestations. Of these sixteen principals, at 
least eight report some attempt on the part of the 
school authorities to develop a controlled social life. In 
other words, eight out of the sixteen principals who 
report no excess in pupils have at least, in some de- 
gree, made the social life of their pupils an object 
of attention. Nine principals who report a tendency 
of their pupils to go to extremes report also that little 
or no official recognition of the social side is given. 
In some cases it is ignored and in one case of excess 
the principal reported that he definitely suppressed 
everything of the sort. Manifestly his suppression 
was a failure. The normal instincts toward sociabil- 
ity, denied expression within and under the super- 
vision of the school, were having more or less riotous 
development outside. 

With reference to the faculty supervision of school 
or class parties, fifteen report a fair degree of super- 
vision, that is, one or more teachers are expected 
to be present. Nine report that teachers are not 
only present, but play an active part in the planning 
of the parties. Four report no supervision of any 
sort. 

Home Cooperation Needed.— It must be manifest to 
all high school teachers and principals that the suc- 
cessful handling of the social life of the pupils re- 
quires the active interest and cooperation of the home. 

151 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

Nine of these principals recognize it as in part a 
parents' problem. Excessive social activities of pupils 
develop apparently quite largely through lack of plain 
common-sense on the part of parents. Some have 
found it possible to enlist the help of parents, with 
good results; others urge the need of educating the 
parent up to where he will see his own responsibility in 
such matters. In some places it has been found that 
the parent-teacher associations have brought about a 
mutual understanding that has been most helpful in 
the control of the pupil's social life. 

Friday Afternoon Parties. — In some schools, in some 
parts of the country, a weekly or bi-weekly party is 
made a feature of the school program. These parties 
are somewhat formal, just because the adolescent 
needs training in social conventions. They are ar- 
ranged to meet the legitimate need of the pupils for 
purely social recreation. In the University of Chi- 
cago High School these parties occur on Friday after- 
noons, after school hours, and are attended by some 
of the parents. There is dancing, in which all take 
part. The aim is to secure the active participation of 
everyone, rather than of the few who may need it 
less. This official recognition of a stated period in 
the school program has much to commend it. It 
would furnish a means, if properly carried out, of 
developing a healthful school friendliness, a means 
of overcoming snobbery and clannishness. It can be 
made to take the place in part of the high school fra- 
ternities. Not that the secret societies will be aban- 
doned of their own accord. Experience indicates that 
they must in most cases be positively forbidden by 
school authorities. But forbidding is not successful 

152 



INTERNAL LIFE OF THE SCHOOL 

unless various other avenues of social activity are 
provided and carefully cultivated. 

The attitude of the thirty high school principals of 
this Middle Western state toward such a type of social 
recreation is probably fairly representative of opinion 
in other states. Some of them think it might be a 
good plan, especially if parents would attend. In 
general, however, they are dubious ; in part, no doubt, 
because the idea is unfamiliar. Many are sure it 
would not be popular with the pupils, that they would 
think it tame, that it would be too frequent, would 
be bound to become hackneyed; it might be sufficient 
for their needs, but not for their desires; would be a 
burden on teachers; would savor of the school 
regime; would not give the pupils the opportunity to 
do as much as they pleased for themselves ; they would 
want more freedom, etc. These are typical answers ; 
and yet, the plan has met with marked success in 
places where tried. There seems no good reason why 
every one of these objections could not be adequately 
met by a competent principal and teachers. One prin- 
cipal admits that some such plan is needed, and two 
or three have tried some modification of the idea. 

Present Status of Social Entertainments.- — At present 
it appears that the chief form of social entertainment 
under the auspices of the schools in small Middle 
Western towns are class parties, the annual reception 
of the juniors to the seniors, parties by various school 
clubs, such as the athletic, literary, etc. These all 
present interesting possibilities to the believer in social 
education, but it is unfortunate that the need of gen- 
eral functions for the entire school is not more widely 
recognized. It goes without saying that, where the 
ll i53 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

school is large, it is not feasible to handle all the 
pupils at one time, but suitable methods of diversion 
can be worked out. 

Testimony of One School-Man. — One high school 
principal* states the need for attention to the social 
life of the pupils thus: 

The school must provide for the activities suited to 
high school age. ... It must furnish an education 
for initiative in enterprises, for development in natural 
leadership, for the genius of organization, for the growth 
of individual talents, for the meeting and solving of diffi- 
culties which come from a clash of interests, for the 
fostering of courtesy and dignity of manner, and last, 
but not least, in importance, a training in social conven- 
tions, without which a boy or girl meets life with a 
serious handicap. 

With these needs in mind, he set out to enlarge 
and vitalize the usual club activities in a high school 
of about four hundred. They had "had experiences 
with the fraternity, the excess of dance and party", 
and had felt the "lack of solidarity in the school 
which puts the interests of the school above all out- 
side interests of club or clique". Open organizations 
were "increased to twenty or more, with the social 
feature prominent in most of them". Open meetings 
with printed invitations and refreshments at the close 
of the program were held. Mr. McLinn continues : 

The control of these affairs presented the first prob- 
lem. At the first meeting [of one of the clubs] the 

* C. B. McLinn, in The Boston Journal of Education, 74; 

345- 

154 



INTERNAL LIFE OF THE SCHOOL 

boys drank all the lemonade, and at the next one they 
pocketed the fudge and threw salted peanuts at the girls. 
The teachers in charge were in despair. We determined 
on a concerted action to create a spirit in the school 
against that sort of rowdyism. Frank talks to groups 
and to individuals, an effort to awaken a desire to appear 
well, discussion in classrooms, expression in the school 
paper of student disapproval of bad manners, have borne 
fruit, and abundantly. The sentiment is strong for 
geniality and quiet behavior, and the popularity of the 
societies is also increasing. . . . Each holiday, Hal- 
lowe'en, New Year's, Washington's Birthday, St. Valen- 
tine's Day, has been the occasion of parties by the purely 
social class clubs, sometimes for the girls alone and 
sometimes for both boys and girls. They are all held 
at the school building, which the school board has freely 
thrown open, with no expense for light, heat or janitor, 
and they are chaperoned by the teachers. Other ex- 
penses are borne by the organizations, and the original- 
ity of design, combined with economy of expenditure, 
furnishes also an excellent field for training. 

The benefits are many. Interest and identity in the 
various social groups foster a pride in the school as a 
whole. The greatest force for discipline is a genuine 
school loyalty, such as comes when students take an 
active part in directing the life of the school and feel a 
sense of ownership in the organizations outside of the 
classroom. I have little faith in the student government 
that concerns itself with matters of conduct and dis- 
penses with justice through students' courts and police. 
I do not believe in the autocratic will of the teacher as 
the best means of discipline. The natural and effective 
force in school government is a cultivated and whole- 
some sentiment in favor of right-doing. This "school 

155 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

government," rather than teacher government or student 
government, is one of the most apparent results of train- 
ing through school organizations. . . . 

The effect of this social relation between students and 
teachers is felt in its reaction upon the latter. Teachers 
have need of the enlarged sympathy and understanding 
which come from knowing the child's point of view. 
The problem of the adolescent mind, with its dreams, 
its determined will, its desire for activity and recogni- 
tion, can never be understood by contact in the class- 
room alone. In the large schools, especially where the 
teacher's attention is likely to be limited to her own in- 
dividual work, the spirit of cooperation and interest in 
the school as a whole often comes from her connection 
with student organizations. 

The qualities of leadership and power of initiative that 
develop in these organizations is often remarkable. No- 
where is the spirit of democracy more powerful than in 
the American high school, and nowhere will true merit 
be quicker of recognition. The responsibilities of offi- 
cers, the efficient work of committees, the planning of 
programs and decorations, and unique means of adver- 
tising entertainments, all teach the joy that comes from 
doing for others. True social efficiency is shown in the 
art of acting with others toward a definite end, and 
through school organizations are learned the value of co- 
operation and the essence of self-government. 

New Attitude in High School Administration. — The 

experience of this principal is quoted at length be- 
cause it is typical of a new attitude that is developing 
among high school administrators. What is here 
given could be duplicated from the reports, which the 
writer has gathered, from other high schools in dif- 

156 



INTERNAL LIFE OF THE SCHOOL 

ferent parts of the country. In dwelling at such 
length upon the educational value of the general so- 
cial life of the school, we must not lose our perspec- 
tive. This is only one part of the school's work, and 
it must not be developed to excess. It must not be 
allowed to take the attention of the pupils to such an 
extent that it detracts from the more serious business 
of study. Nor is there any need that it should in a 
school where the officers and teachers have a suitable 
sense of proportion. Everywhere there is need for 
the "golden mean." Just because there is danger of ex- 
cessive attention to "outside-of-class activities" is no 
reason for ignoring the social life, which is bound to 
be present, or for trying to suppress it. 



CHAPTER X 

SCHOOL GOVERNMENT AN OPPORTUNITY FOR 
SOCIAL TRAINING 

Controlling Power of Collective Life. — The fact that 
the school is a little society has many important bear- 
ings upon the problem of educating boys and girls 
for social efficiency. In the preceding chapter we saw 
that living in a social group is itself a character- form- 
ing influence, which may be either good or bad, but 
which, in either case, gives one certain fundamental 
and lasting lessons in social relationships. It was 
pointed out that the life of intimate, face-to-face 
cooperation and competition, such as one finds in the 
family, on the playground, in the gang, or in the 
club, would be impossible if people did not very early 
acquire certain elementary social virtues, such as loy- 
alty, which involves a will ingnessjto ign ore one'sj wn 
personal desires for the sake of the collective interest, 
and withal a certain kindliness and truthfulness in 
dealing with one's fellows or co-workers. It was seen 
also that such a group, whether it be a company of 
children at play, a gang, a club, or any other primary 
unit, cannot long stick together without some regard 
for one another's rights and some agreement among 
its members as to how things are to be done. Each 
person must be willing to stand by the rules and "play 
fair". 

158 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT 

This ingrained sense of lawfulness is one of the 
most striking features of such associations. It is a 
characteristic of lawless gangs, as well as of the law- 
abiding clubs. Within a predatory gang, for instance, 
the fellows must be quite fair with each other, and 
"play the game" as agreed. This feature of group 
life, so natural as to be almost instinctive, has a de- 
cided character-forming influence, and is of the ut- 
most importance in all education directed toward the 
making of real men and women. Whatever other 
qualities an efficient member of society must have he 
must be law-abiding. He must have a due sense of 
responsibility for his own acts and a keen and active 
conscience against all violations of group-morality in 
others. 

Gang Virtues. — We quote from Puffer's admirable 
account in illustration of our statements above: 

The steady pressure of gang life on the side of social 
virtues appears strikingly in the rules and customs of 
these organizations. 

[They] "Put me out," reports one youth, "because I 
said one fellow didn't have spunk to play the leader." 
"Put a boy out of the gang for fighting when he didn't 
need to." "Put a fellow out once for fighting with 
another boy. The other fellow was in the right." 
"Never allow a big fellow to pick on a little one. We 
were against smoking." "Had to be at work when he 
comes into the gang; must pay his dues." "All stand 
up for a fellow in trouble." "Help each other out if 
we get into trouble." "If anybody picked on one of our 
fellows, we would fight them." "If a fellow didn't divvy 
up, we 'started fighting with him." "Put a fellow out 
because he wouldn't take his share of expense." "A 

159 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

fellow wouldn't share up, so we fought him." "Put 
three out for bossing and running the place." "No fel- 
low ever told on us. One fellow was caught. He stayed 
in Charles Street jail three months before the rest of 
us were caught." 

Or consider the following unwritten laws of various 
gangs as a preparation for a law-abiding life : "If there 
was a dispute, the leader settled it. If two fellows were 
fighting for a thing, he took it away from them and gave 
it to another fellow. In playing dice we chuck the fel- 
low out who made the dispute." "I was leader. Would 
settle disputes. Would say whether it was right or not." 
"Quarrel for five or ten minutes, and then ask N. to 
settle it. We would be satisfied with what he would 
say." "The officers would 'most always settle the dis- 
putes. Talk it over, get circumstances, then settle it. 
They would stop the fighting." "If we had disputes, 
we would vote on it. One who would get the majority, 
to him we would leave it go." * 

These Virtues Needed in Adult Society . — Adult soci- 
ety can, no more than a boys' club, hang together and 
do its proper work, unless it is composed of people 
who will stand by the rules and sternly repress those 
who are not inclined to "play fair". Hence, boys and 
girls, as they grow up, must have exercise in such 
an attitude toward life and the orderliness that life de- 
mands. 

Training for Civic Life Necessary. — It might be ar- 
gued that no such training is needful if children nat- 
urally acquire this sense in their youthful organiza- 
tions. All the training they need should provide for 
itself automatically in gangs, clubs, and in playing 

* Puffer, J. A., The Boy and His Gang. 

1 60 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT 

group games. But this is not the case. The instinct 
of the youth is narrow in its scope and limited in its 
application. It is not likely that the lawfulness within 
the gang will ever be extended to the broader rela- 
tions of life, unless it is taken hold of and developed 
by someone who sees farther than do the boys them- 
selves. Group morality is at best only raw material, 
but, even so, it is a valuable asset for every teacher 
of youth. It means that, to make responsible, law- 
abiding citizens out of irresponsible and clannish boys, 
one does not have to implant in them some new qual- 
ity, or point of view, but only to provide proper op- 
portunity for that which they already are to have 
exercise along right lines, to shunt the native energy 
of boyhood into the channels that will enable it gradu- 
ally to expand into the full measure needed by the 
man. 

Opportunity in School Government. — This purpose 
can be attained in many ways, and not the least of 
them is the opportunity afforded by the government 
of boys and girls in school. Here the teacher or prin- 
cipal has a golden opportunity to exercise children in 
habits of good conduct and in a proper respect and 
responsibility for law and order, through utilizing 
their sense for these things gained in their own asso- 
ciation together. 

As an abstract proposition, it would seem to be 
almost self-evident that a well-balanced education of 
youth could not afford to omit such training from 
its program. And yet few teachers get at the matter 
with any well-defined and conscious purpose. School 
government is often regarded as purely incidental to 
the intellectual training, or, if approached more 

161 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

directly, it is usually through talks, lectures, and gen- 
eral admonitions. But what boys and girls need is 
practice in the habit of responsibility, practice in dis- 
criminating between good and bad conduct, and for 
this the daily work of every school affords plenty of 
opportunity. 

Pupil Participation in School Government. — It is with 
reference to giving the youth such practice that many 
schools have tried various schemes of self-govern- 
ment, or, more properly speaking, pupil-participation, 
in school government. Dr. Charles W. Eliot has well 
stated the principles underlying the educational need 
felt by these teachers. He says : 

The first of these fundamental principles is that the 
real object in education, so far as the development of 
character is concerned, is to cultivate in the child a ca- 
pacity for self-control or self-government, not a habit 
of submission to an overwhelming, arbitrary, external 
power, but a habit of obeying the dictates of honor and 
duty as enforced by active will within the child. 

The second fundamental principle to which properly 
conducted self-government seems to me to conform is 
that in childhood and in youth it is of the utmost im- 
portance to appeal steadily, and almost exclusively, to 
motives which will be operative in after-life. In too 
much of our systematic education we appeal to motives 
which we are sure cannot lastlto motives which may 
answer for little children of six, ten or twelve, but which 
are entirely inapplicable to boys or girls of fourteen, 
sixteen or eighteen. Thus, fear is one of these transi- 
tory motives on which organized education in the past 
has almost exclusively relied; yet it is well determined 
by the history of the race that the fear of punishment, 

162 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT 

whether in this world or the next, is a very ineffective 
motive with adults. 

The third fundamental principle in education is 
Froebel's doctrine that children are best developed 
through productive activities, that is, through positive, 
visible achievement in doing, making or producing some- 
thing. 

Student self-government enforces positive activity; it 
appeals steadily to motives in the boys which will serve 
them when they become men; and it is constantly trying 
to develop in the boyish community the capacity of self- 
government. Therefore, I say it is based on sound edu- 
cational principles. 

Questions at Issue. — Much has been written and 
spoken on the subject within the last dozen or fifteen 
years, some of it heartily in favor and some bitterly 
opposed. Into the details of this controversy we can- 
not here attempt to enter. Our purpose should rather 
be to try to see the matter in its right perspective and 
with a clear appreciation of the needs at stake and 
the principles involved. First of all, let us say, it is 
not the form of school government which is of the 
greatest moment. It is rather whether the pupils 
are actually getting any practice in shouldering re- 
sponsibility and in deciding things for themselves, as 
they will have to do when they leave school. This 
practice they might conceivably get in a variety of 
ways and under a variety of external forms of gov- 
ernment. A school, to outward appearance, governed 
according to a strict monarchial scheme, might fur- 
nish large character-forming opportunities along this 
line. So also might a school in which there was very 
little said about government at all. 

163 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

Let us also admit that a school which seeks to give 
its pupils practice in law-abiding conduct may not 
be any more orderly to the observer than one which is 
controlled by a strict and arbitrary authority. The 
school of the former type, however, will do more 
real training than the latter, because its pupils are 
learning the lessons of self-control, instead of merely 
submitting to authority, and self-control is really 
what we want, ultimately, rather than blind submis- 
sion. Without committing ourselves, then, to any 
particular form of school-government, let us try to 
see how pupils can actually get this practice in self- 
control and in civic responsibility. Let us try to see 
whether the conditions of school-life are such that 
this practice can be real and not mere pretence. 

Sense of Social Unity Primary. — If the room or the 
school forms a social group of the best type the teach- 
ers as well as the pupils are members. The teachers 
do not stand outside and aloof, but rather participate 
with their pupils in the common life and interests of 
the school. It is in this corporate life of the school, 
including both teachers and pupils, that the real basis 
for genuine pupil-participation in school government 
is to be found. Unless that participation is a natural 
expression of a healthful, kindly, loyal and law-abid- 
ing group spirit it is apt to be farcical. The teacher, 
therefore, who wishes to give his pupils practice in 
the art of social responsibility must first see that his 
school actually furnishes the conditions. 

Natural as these needful qualities are within the 
children's own associations outside of school, they 
may not appear in any helpful way within the school- 
room. The pupils will possess more or less sense of 

164 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT 

their own "oneness", but this sense will not be apt 
to function for the good of the school. They may 
use their sense of social unity against the teacher 
rather than in cooperation with him. The school 
may be just a seething mass of individual boys and 
girls, held together, or, rather, held down, by the 
stern authority of the teacher, or it may form a 
crude social unity, bent constantly upon mischief. A 
few aggressive pupils may develop a public sentiment 
of insubordination, and those pupils who do not ac- 
tively join in with them stand quietly to one side and 
watch the fun, or even admire the bravado of those 
who dare to be lawless. In other words, the failure 
to build up a healthful group spirit within the school 
results in many right-minded pupils being held in 
abeyance, and, though with natural inclinations 
toward good order, instead of their being actively en- 
listed in its behalf, they are reduced to neutrality. 

Teacher Must Possess Social Sympathy. — If the 
teacher would enlist the energies of his pupils in the 
cause of good order and give them practice in social 
responsibility he must show in all his dealings with 
them a genuine capacity to be one of their group and 
a genuine willingness to participate with them in their 
group life. To do this does not mean that he shall 
lower himself in their estimation. He does not have 
to be childish to have a really sympathetic, hearty at- 
titude toward children. He does not have to throw 
away the wise influence of his maturity to enter into 
a real appreciation of the children's point of view. 
A teacher who is able to establish this relationship 
with his pupils ceases to be regarded by them as an 
arbitrary and external authority, whose main business 

165 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

is to make them, if he can, do what they do not want 
to do. He is rather one of their group, older and 
wiser, it is true, than they are, but still one with 
whom they feel they can cooperate. 

Pupils' Part May Be Genuine. — The plea is often 
made that pupil-participation in school government 
can never be more than a sham. The pupils only -pre- 
tend to govern themselves and know it is only pre- 
tence. The teacher or principal is the real power be- 
hind the scenes. Those who make this plea fail to 
grasp the point of view developed in the preceding 
paragraphs, namely, that a true social unity, including 
pupils and teachers, can actually be formed, and that 
within it each one can have a genuine part to play. 
The fact that the teacher's personality has more 
weight that the children's is a perfectly normal so- 
cial fact. In the great world outside, where there is 
interplay of personality, there is every gradation of 
influence. Some people, because of greater knowl- 
edge, aggressiveness or superior leadership, are felt 
much more than others, but the lesser parts are none 
the less genuine. The teacher, therefore, should be 
the leader, but his leadership is not necessarily sub- 
versive to true exercise in responsibility on the part 
of the pupils. 

A New York City Plan. — Even the elementary 
school affords opportunities for beginnings along the 
lines sketched above. The plan followed in one of 
the public schools of New York City is suggestive. 
The plan is as follows: 

The foundation is laid in the lowest grades by simple 
forms of pupil cooperation, without any of the forms 

166 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT 

of self-government. In the middle grades pupils are 
permitted to elect a few class officers, who take charge 
in the absence of the teacher and suggest certain mat- 
ters affecting class government. In the upper grades 
the pupils of the last three years are organized as a 
"School State," consisting of a federation of classes 
called "Cities." 

Owing to the size of the school, each department has 
its own set of state officers, consisting of a Governor, 
a Lieutenant-Governor, a Secretary of State, a State 
Treasurer, an Attorney-General, and a Chief Justice. 

Nominations for state officers are made by a conven- 
tion consisting of delegates from each one of the cities. 
A general election is held once a term, the voting being 
done by mimeograph ballot. The canvassing of the 
votes, a very interesting process, is done after school 
hours, so as not to encroach on the time devoted to 
study. The duties of the state officers are those usually 
performed, with modifications made necessary by school 
conditions. 

The Legislature is bi-cameral, consisting of a Senate, 
composed of girls elected in each of the cities in the 
girls' department, and an Assembly, composed of boys. 
Resolutions, before taking effect, must be approved by 
the Governors and signed by the principals, who exer- 
cise a final veto. When a Governor vetoes a bill it is 
submitted to the voters in the class and by them ap- 
proved or disapproved. 

The Court takes cognizance of all offenses committed 
outside the classrooms. In the class the teacher is in 
absolute charge, unless she decides to avail herself of 
the State Court; in such case the Attorney-General con- 
ducts the prosecution and represents the teacher or the 
principal. The penalties inflicted are: (a) reparation, 

167 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

where possible, (b) apology, (c) reprimand in court, 
(d) reprimand in class, (e) detention, (f) imposition of 
demerit marks, (g) deprivation of the rights of citizen- 
ship for a stated period ; this involves the forfeiture of 
civic rights in halls, play-yards, and on the street. All 
penalties imposed must be approved by the teacher in 
charge. 

The classes are organized as cities, with a mayor 
elected for a term of one month. Each row of seats 
forms a ward and elects an alderman to the city council, 
which concerns itself with affairs pertaining to the class 
— such as the arrangement of pictures and decorations, 
the distribution of material, etc. The teacher retains an 
absolute veto over the deliberations of the council. 

Preparation of Pupils Essential to Success. — To 
prepare the way for such a system the teachers 
should talk to the smallest children about "our 
school" and encourage them to think of what they 
can do to make it better. She can illustrate in very 
simple ways how their interests are all bound to- 
gether, how they can help or hinder each other and 
herself in their work and play. They can be made to 
see that unruly conduct is an infringement upon their 
own rights as well as upon hers. In all sorts of little 
ways they can be thrown on their own responsibility 
for maintaining good order within and without the 
school-room. When trouble of any sort arises she 
can talk it over with her pupils and help them to see 
it is something in which they are all concerned and 
that the good name of their room is at stake. 

Little Children Naturally Interested. — It does not 
take any special forcing to arouse even little chil- 
dren's interest in these things. In fact, until they 

168 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT 

are repeatedly suppressed they show a great deal of 
natural concern for all matters of school behavior. 
This concern is often crude and develops into trou- 
blesome "tattling", but it is the manifestation of a 
wholesome instinct, which, if properly cultivated, is 
an asset rather than a nuisance. In a school known 
to the writer some second-grade children were once 
involved in a little quarrel on the playground. When 
the teacher appeared some of the children who had 
witnessed the trouble volunteered to explain to her 
how it had occurred. She turned on them angrily, 
with the command to keep still. Her attitude was 
that it was solely her affair, and she preferred to set- 
tle it by an exercise of her own authority. She ig- 
nored the natural concern of the children to partici- 
pate in an adjustment of the trouble. Treatment of 
this sort can produce only one result in the pupils — 
the feeling that misbehavior in others is no concern 
of theirs, that it is the teacher's business to detect and 
punish if she can. 

Need of Public Sentiment. — No teacher wishes to en- 
courage foolish "tattling", nor is it necessary. Every 
school should develop a strong public sentiment for 
good order and should provide ways in which this 
sentiment can express itself without its incurring the 
odium of "tattling". As Mr. Richard Welling says : 

It is alarming to realize how little the American peo- 
ple are concerned with their public affairs. In the few 
days preceding elections they are much aroused about 
measures and men. But when the great day has passed 
there is a general sigh of relief and a feeling that "it's 
a good thing it comes only once a year." The only 
12 169 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

other events that arouse them from their civic slumber 
are the prosecution of public officials and the uncover- 
ing of graft. In the absence of these the average Ameri- 
can citizen devotes himself without interruption to his 
personal affairs. This is what is known as public apathy, 
and instead of its being the object of attack from all 
citadels of progress it is looked upon as an elemental 
fact of civic life. Writers, preachers, teachers, publicists 
all agree that the greatest asset of the political boss and 
the greatest obstacle to a purer and more enlightened 
democracy is the apathy of the mass of citizens. 

This we know — that in the main our people are lack- 
ing in a true conception of the benefits of democracy; 
and this we believe — that by permitting the pupils in 
the school to share in its government they will become 
habituated to democratic living.* 

If the stability of adult society depends upon such 
a willingness of the majority of its members to stand 
openly and fearlessly for good government, a willing- 
ness to support its appointed officials in suppressing 
flagrant wrongdoing, it is hard to see why the same 
should not be encouraged in the little school society. 
There are obstacles and difficulties, to be sure, and 
the easiest course is for the teacher to assume the 
whole responsibility, but this is not the course most 
needed by the pupils. 

Practical Demonstrations. — The efforts thus far made 
in many schools to train in individual and social re- 
sponsibility afford very suggestive object lessons of 
the truth of the principles here set forth. Over and 
over again it has been shown to be possible to develop, 

* From an address before The National Education Asso- 
ciation, 1903. 

170 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT 

especially in the grammar grades and in high school, 
a full-fledged sense of the school's collective life, with 
an attendant sound public opinion on all matters of 
•conduct. Over and over again it has been found pos- 
sible to utilize for the good of the school the gang's 
instinctive sense of lawfulness. Children, in coopera- 
tion with their teachers, do show an amazing capacity 
to control themselves and to suppress wrongdoing 
and bring in line the offenders. There is, in fact, no 
greater controlling force than that exerted by a social 
group. 

As Mr. Welling says in another paper * : 

Boys and girls have shown an astonishing capacity 
to deal with social and political problems similar to those 
that arise in the world outside. Even the truant has 
thus been successfully dealt with. Principals are unani- 
mous in reporting that this has been due largely to the 
creation of public opinion among the children them- 
selves. The head of a New York City public school 
reports the case of a Jewish boy, a red-blooded tough, 
who threatened to give grave trouble. The boy chief- 
of-police, with public sentiment behind him, took charge 
of the case. The young tough. saw the light, used his 
energies in another direction, became a militant good 
citizen and was finally elected mayor, and was a good 
mayor at that. It was only natural that where the 
mistaken loyalty of the boy may have been to his gang 
or to his mischief-loving hero, when once this loyalty 
was perfectly directed the original worst offender should 
become mayor of the school Republic. 

* Proceedings of the National Association for the Study 
and Education of Exceptional Children, 191 1, p. 94. 

171 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

A School-city in Manhattan. — In order to give the 
reader a concrete picture of the working of a school- 
city we quote at some length the account of a visit 
to a large down-town school in Manhattan : 

Here is a school city of four years' standing. The 
school city officers, headed by the mayor, a small girl, 
conducted the opening exercises. As the children 
marched in, in perfect step and time with the music, 
the principal pointed out that the only crooked line was 
in charge of a teacher, in the absence of one of the small 
officials. He went on to say that he had recently tried 
the experiment of having no teachers present at the 
opening exercises. So far as the children were con- 
cerned, the experiment succeeded, but he had to give 
it up because of the difficulty of finding the teachers 
when they were wanted. . . . 

After the exercises the principal directed six teachers 
to leave their rooms, and then sent me, with a small boy 
to act as guide, to inspect the six teacherless rooms. 
In each one I found the president in charge and work 
going on in as quiet and orderly a manner as possible. 
When I got back to the principal's office he told me this 
story: Some few weeks before, one of his teachers 
had been ill and away. To fill her place the authorities 
sent an elderly woman, who is on the retired list and 
acts as a substitute. Realizing that it would be next to 
impossible to explain the spirit and purpose of the school 
city to this teacher, accustomed by life-long habit to old 
methods, he simply told her that they had a system of 
self-government in the school; that all he wanted her 
to do was to hear the children recite and to assign them 
their lessons. Beyond this she was to do nothing. Let 
her take a book and read, occupy herself as she chose, 
but on no account interfere with the discipline. 

172 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT 

For three days the elderly woman obeyed instructions 
implicitly. On the fourth, although the order was good, 
she could stand the strain no longer. Old habits re- 
asserted themselves, and she started in to boss the job in 
the good old orthodox fashion. To her consternation, 
chaos ensued. She grew excited and tried violent meas- 
ures. The chaos turned to riot. The riot turned into 
open rebellion, until, with mingled wrath and fear, the 
teacher fled from the pandemonium and sped to the 
principal's office. The principal lost little time in reach- 
ing the seat of trouble. What did he find? The presi- 
dent of the class in charge, the work going on quietly, 
the room in perfect order. The elderly substitute left 
the school in bewildered rage. 

In the afternoon came a session of the court. The 
court meets every Friday evening after school. I was 
somewhat surprised to find a girl presiding as judge. 
There is a tradition that the feminine mind is not judi- 
cial. This little judge had a very high forehead, a de- 
termined chin offset by large and kindly eyes ; altogether 
a face that suggested strength and a sense of justice 
mitigated by "the milk of human kindness." The prin- 
cipal said she had been nominated by one of the boys 
at the last nominating convention in these words : "I 
think we want a girl for judge, because girls are more 
merciful than boys and less apt to get mad and act with- 
out thinking when they're mad. I think we want Minnie 

for judge, because she's got these good qualities 

of girls more than most any other girl has." Minnie 
was nominated and later unanimously elected. 

As the ten defendants came forward successively I 
was impressed with the rapidity and assurance with 
which the judge gave sentence. The charges were: 
"Turning around in line at assembly," "Loud talking 

173 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

during school hours," "Marking school books," "Fooling 
on the stairs," etc. The judgments varied from acquit- 
tals and reprimands to three or four days in the deten- 
tion room. In general, the sentences were light for first 
and heavy for second and third offences. The three or 
four-day detention room penalties sounded so drastic 
that I inquired about them. It appears that the deten- 
tion room, instead of being a dungeon, is a pleasant 
classroom set aside for the purpose and presided over 
by a school city official, commonly the chief-of-police. 
A day is the half-hour after school which the Board of 
Education permits children to be detained. As most of 
the children in this particular school stay after school 
voluntarily for more than half an hour, it was difficult 
to see the terror of this punishment. On inquiry, how- 
ever, I found that this penalty was greatly dreaded be- 
cause of the disgrace attached to it. Apparently the 
philosophy of the thing is this : When punished by your 
teacher you are a martyr in the eyes of your fellows. 
When punished by your fellows you are a disgrace to 
their community. 

Of course, no sentence may be executed without the 
approval of the principal. He stands to the judiciary in 
the relation of a supreme court. He told me that it had 
not been necessary for him to reverse or even modify 
a single decision of the girl judge since her first few 
weeks in office. 

Next to the judge the most interesting figure in court 
was the sheriff. He was a tough-looking specimen. 
He would have looked much more appropriate as a 
prisoner at the bar than as an officer of the law. It 
appeared that he had scrupulously lived up to his looks 
until his election as sheriff, since which time he had been 
a shining example of efficient propriety. There had been 

174 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT 

not a single case of contempt of court during his term 
of office. Although far from a brilliant student, he had 
at least taken to struggling with his lessons. He told 
the principal he wanted to make a good record as sheriff 
so that "they" would some time elect him to an office 
with more work to it.* 

To quote still again from Mr. Welling f : 

The idea has passed the experimental stage. Whether 
it be the Brownlee system, which emphasizes the pre- 
liminary character-training side of self-government; the 
Ray system, which employs a Roman form of self- 
government; the school city plan, which applies the prin- 
ciple through the organization of a modified municipal 
government; the school state, the school country, the 
student council, the commission plan, or whatever other 
plan may be devised, the utilization of civics is a grow- 
ing factor in the schools. The pity of it is that it is not 
growing faster. 

Enough has been said to make clear the point of 
view from which the teacher or principal should re- 
gard the problem of pupil-participation in school con- 
trol. That pupils need practice in civic responsi- 
bility will meet with general agreement. Just how 
to accomplish it in a particular school is a matter that 
calls for much tact, much keen insight into child and 
youth nature. The plans described above might not 

* "School Republics," L. B. Stowe, The Outlook, Decem- 
ber 26, 1909. Reprinted by courtesy of The Outlook Com- 
pany. 

t Proceedings of the National Education Association, 191 1, 
p. 1008. 

175 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

succeed everywhere, certainly not without suitable 
preparation for them. Success also will depend on 
the character of teachers and other school officers. 
They must thoroughly understand and be in complete 
sympathy with what is proposed. They must be skill- 
ful leaders of boys and girls. If these latter condi- 
tions are not favorable to inaugurating such a system 
in full, it will often be found possible to do it at least 
partially.* 

* For much of the concrete material here presented I am 
indebted to the kindness of "The School Citizen's Commit- 
tee," No. 2 Wall Street, New York City. This Committee 
offers literature and expert advice to any school desiring to 
start pupil-participation in government. 



CHAPTER XI 
THE SOCIAL IDEAL IN THE CURRICULUM 

Soci&l Efficiency: How Produced. — True social effi- 
ciency cannot be attained by any educational scheme 
which is narrowly intellectualistic. In certain of the 
preceding chapters we have sketched some of the 
means of bringing the school into closer touch with 
the community which it serves. This intimate rela- 
tionship is not only normal, but necessary for every 
well-balanced school. The real school must be an 
organic part of the community life. The training of 
child nature in the school must, it is true, be more 
definite and systematic in certain directions than the 
training that the community can give, but it must not 
be markedly different from what the community 
might attempt, if it had the time to give to that sort 
of work. It should, in other words, be a training 
for an efficient life in that or other similar com- 
munities. 

Community Vitally Related to School. — ."All the in- 
stincts of humanity, all the growth of civilization, 
demand that intelligent concern be devoted to the suc- 
cess of the young and inexperienced. The force that 
holds society together makes it also desirous of pro- 
viding for children such training as shall perfect 
them as nearly as may be in accordance with their 

177 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

possibilities and for living life to the full," * The 
fact that the school has been set off, under the social 
necessity of division of labor, to render a specialized 
service affords no reason for its confining its service 
to a purely intellectual and largely individualistic 
training. Jt should be its function, rather, to produce 
and to focus upon the growing child all the best forces 
present in the modern civilized community. It must 
do this in order that these forces may exert a sys- 
tematic rather than a haphazard influence. Such a 
task is by no means simple or easy, but it is none 
the less needful. It is difficult in proportion as the 
school attempts merely to imitate the conditions of 
social life rather than to be a vital outgrowth of this 
life. 

School Must Select Best Elements. — Moreover, there 
are many forces at play in society that it is not de- 
sirable should appear in the school. This is partly 
due to the fact that society is far from perfect. 
There are many modes of behavior current which we 
do not wish to perpetuate. Hence, from this point of 
view, the influences of the school must not be a mere 
duplication in miniature of the social life outside the 
school. It must be an idealized, but none the less 
genuine, expression of the better aspects of the life 
of the community. Furthermore, the community life 
is complex and highly specialized. As it stands it is 
beyond the range of understanding possible to the 
child. It needs to be simplified and adapted to the 
various stages of child growth, if it is to have real 
educative value. But simplification should be pos- 

* Dr. William JvleAnclrew, in The World's Work, Novem- 
ber, 1912. 

178 



SOCIAL IDEAL IN THE CURRICULUM 

siblc without depriving it of its genuine social charac- 
ter. 

Method of School One-sided. — The intellectualistic 
training of the old-time school was largely supple- 
mented, as we have seen, by life outside the school. 
Children had abundant opportunity to share in varied 
types of work and community experience. If the 
school training was narrow and unsocial, there wen 1 
a thousand ways in which it was filled out. But, in 
our present state of society, it is doubtful if there can 
be such a complete separation of functions. It is 
doubtful if the intellectual training furnished by the 
school is really adequate as intellectual training un- 
less it is connected more definitely with the rest of the 
child's life. Divorced from all social relationships, 
the school studies seem abstract and incomprehensible 
to the majority of children, and they fail to respond 
with much interest. Their best efforts are not called 
forth; they fall behind, often have to repeat the work 
and are adjudged, by the narrow standard of abstract 
intellectual proficiency, to be backward, or even defi- 
cient. On the other hand, real life, community life, 
has places for all types and variations in ability, ex- 
cept for those abnormal forms found in the criminal, 
feeble-minded, and insane. 

Training- Should Be Adapted to Individual Ability. — 
Every normal child in the community is entitled to 
such training as he is capable of receiving. And, in the 
ordinary ''give and take" of neighborhood and commu- 
nity-life, each child usually gets more or less real prep- 
aration for manhood. However, in the school, which 
is dominated by the narrow ideals of information and 
discipline, there is a place for only one type of child, 

179 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

and that an unusual type, one who is interested in 
ideas rather than in things and in deeds. If the 
school is to afford the same opportunity to all types 
of children it would seem necessary that it should 
reproduce to a greater extent the conditions of health- 
ful community-life. Outside the school both the in- 
formation and motive for work are social ; within the 
school it is apt to be true of neither. The general 
question of motivation we have considered in an 
earlier chapter; here we confine ourselves to the prob- 
lem of how to secure a more socialized subject-matter 
of instruction, a more socialized course of study, how 
to connect the subject-matter of the curriculum more 
definitely with the larger life of the pupils, or, per- 
haps, what and how should a school teach, which defi- 
nitely adjusts its efforts according to the ideal of 
social efficiency? 

Our inquiry does not in the slightest degree ignore 
the generally recognized function of the school to 
train the child and to cultivate in him the right and 
useful habits needful for adult life. It is concerned 
rather with the question of the best means of accom- 
plishing these necessary ends. 

Why Narrow Standards Prevail. — It is easy to see 
how the narrow intellectual conception of the means 
to these desirable results should have come to pre- 
vail. In the first place the conception is easier to 
follow. It is easier for the teacher to tell than to 
develop. It is easier to impose tasks than to guide 
original impulses into fruitful lines of expression 
and growth. It is easier to conceive of the child as 
an idea-getting machine than as a developing person- 
ality, with impulses, motives, and appreciations. The 

180 



SOCIAL IDEAL IN THE CURRICULUM 

great difficulty, however, with this easier way is that 
it reaches so few children. As long as school men 
were satisfied as to the correctness of the intellec- 
tualistic scheme, they complacently regarded all chil- 
dren who did not respond to it as backward or defi- 
cient. It did not occur to them that there could be 
any defect in the type of training itself. 

Definite Results Wanted. — The idea that school 
training should be a real training for an efficient so- 
cial life is by no means new. In fact, it has long 
been held as an abstract theory. There is, however, 
a novelty in the present-day attitude on this matter, 
and that is the growing tendency to ask whether, in 
its actual work, the school is trying to do anything 
specific toward the realization of this ideal. Most 
teachers have tended to assume that if they had the 
right theory as to the aim of their teaching, it would 
matter little what they actually did, for all efforts 
would of necessity exert some influence in bringing 
their ideals to pass. However, it is one of the signs 
of the times that people are more and more insisting 
upon definite results. Less and less satisfaction is 
found in the comfortable feeling that the results, 
though intangible, are none the less real; that there 
are effects, even though they cannot be accurately 
specified and measured. 

There is, of course, a danger of going too far with 
such demands. Not every valuable result can be defi- 
nitely separated from other results and accurately 
measured. We cannot measure all the results of 
school education, all the deep-seated enthusiasm and 
character development that may occur in a pupil 
through association with a high-minded teacher, and, 

181 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

yet, we must not imagine that these fine products are 
entirely unconnected with efficiency in those phases 
of the educational process which are under control. 
It is a good thing that we should try to see more 
clearly wherein our work is efficient or lacking in effi- 
ciency. Every teacher should frequently ask himself 
pointedly : Just what am I doing, through my teach- 
ing, day by day, to cultivate sound judgment, deeper 
appreciation of social relationships and duties; just 
what practice are my pupils actually getting, through 
being in this school, in doing the things they will 
surely have to do in later life? 

Closer Connection Needed Between Practice and Ideals. 
— The current demand that the teacher show defi- 
nitely how his teaching is related to the ideal which 
he accepts as valid is an outgrowth of the conviction 
that a good deal of our school work is barren of re- 
sult because it is not consciously connected, day by 
day, with any governing purpose. This failure to 
make connection between ideals and practical work is 
partly due to wrong conceptions of ideals. With 
most people ideals are largely luxuries, because they 
are either conceived so vaguely as to be useless, or as 
so remote that they become unattainable. The natural 
result of such a point of view is that educational 
ideals, whatever they may be, have little place in de- 
termining the actual work of the school-room. The 
teacher with the finest aims is apt to become the 
worst sort of empiricist, because he never gets his 
aims into any sort of working relation to his daily 
problems. // the social ideal of education is to be 
really worth holding, it must be capable of being put 
into this working relation with the actual business of 

182 



SOCIAL IDEAL IN THE CURRICULUM 

educating boys and girls. It must be a determining 
factor in the teaching and administration of the vari- 
ous school studies, as well as in the more general re- 
lations of the school to the community. 

Some teachers possibly imagine that the intellec- 
tual training is distinct from the social training. The 
child is said to get his training for social life through 
the various "social activities" of the school, through 
supervised play, and so forth. But, in the studies 
themselves, the training is admittedly individualistic, 
and is, in the main, a training for intellectual profi- 
ciency. That is, the main work of the school, as 
embodied in the actual work of study and teaching, 
is not directly, or even remotely, connected with the 
realization of the social life. 

Curriculum Must Be Socialized. — Now, in a really 
socialized school the socialization must extend beyond 
the "outside activities", so-called; it must extend be- 
yond the school's external relationships to the neigh- 
borhood; it must include the socialization of the cur- 
riculum, and of the methods of teaching and of study. 
If it does not go this far, we cannot hope that the 
main work of the school, as it finds expression in 
the study and teaching, will do much in the way of 
making of boys and girls better members of society. 
If they acquire social power it will be because of 
other influences than those exerted specifically 
through teaching and study. If a pupil is to get any 
real training for social efficiency through his school 
studies it must be because his teachers make that a 
direct and specific object, both in the selection of his 
studies and in the way they are taught to him. With 
such an end in view, the social ideal must be very 

183 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

tangibly conceived; it must be thought of as a tool, 
rather than as a remote goal unrelated to present en- 
deavor. 

The problem, then, is how may the curriculum, the 
studies, and the regular work of teaching and learn- 
ing contribute to the realization of the social ideal? 
There are really two separate questions involved, 
namely, that of socializing the studies, and that of 
socializing the method. In actual school-life they are 
interwoven, but, for the sake of clearness, we take 
them up one at a time. First of all, how should the 
studies be socialized? 

How to Do This. — The fundamental condition of 
socializing the studies is that they shall clearly connect 
with and explain some phases of the actual life of 
the pupil. It is not sufficient that the teacher shall 
know that the school studies are really phases of so- 
cial experience. Thoughtful teachers, indeed, have 
always known it. They have known that people can- 
not get along without some understanding of reading, 
of writing, and of numbers. They have known that 
the successful pursuit of vocations requires not only 
skill in the use of the hands, but more or less knowl- 
edge of the world, as given in geography and in 
other phases of natural science. It requires some un- 
derstanding of the principles of human effort and 
conflict, as revealed in history, sociology, economics, 
etc. It is not, however, enough that the teacher 
should know all this as he teaches his various sub- 
jects. The pupil should know it also. The funda- 
mental vice of the traditional school lay in the as- 
sumption that these important forms of social knowl- 
edge could be successfully taught without some rec- 

184 



SOCIAL IDEAL IN THE CURRICULUM 

ognition on the part of the learner that he was 
really learning how to live and work. It was as- 
sumed that the boy would, when he left school, see 
the connection of his school-work with life, even if 
he did not see it at the time he was in school. When 
he went to work he would be able to make practical ap- 
plication of the knowledge gained in school, even if he 
saw no practical applications while he was a student. 
I suppose, furthermore, that everyone is agreed 
that what the boy studies should benefit him in some 
way, and this benefit, if it is genuine, whether it be 
discipline, culture, skill, power, or information, must 
make of the boy a more efficient man. So far so 
good. But , when it is assumed that he will get this 
benefit if he studies and is taught out of all specific 
connection with social life, there must be dissent. 
The boy, of himself, will not make the connection be- 
tween what he has learned in school and what he finds 
he must do outside the school. This is not the worst 
feature of the case, however. When the teacher and 
the school feel that they are not under obligation to 
make clear the application to life, they have easily 
tended to allow their work to become even more re- 
mote and unreal. The criterion of social utility is 
constantly needed that the course of study may be 
kept up-to-date and vital. If the school is not con- 
stantly required to measure its work by some such 
standard it will rapidly drop behind the actual needs 
of present-day society. It will keep the boys and 
girls at tasks which not only have no clear connec- 
tion with real life, but actually have no connection of 
any sort, being even many decades or centuries be- 
hind present needs. 

13 185 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

The First Requirement.' — In the socialization of the 
curriculum, then, two things are needful: first, the 
subjects taught must really be subjects which inter- 
pret and prepare for efficient living in the present- 
day world. The hulls and vestiges of outworn 
modes of thought and long unused ideas must be 
cast away. While breadth of knowledge is desirable, 
and facts about remote times and distant parts of 
the earth must be studied, such facts are really worth 
while only as they connect with that which is near 
at hand, and as they help the pupil to understand his 
own world more thoroughly. As mere information 
about remote times and places, they have no value. 
Unless a body of fact has some positive contribution 
to make to present social efficiency it has no excuse 
for remaining in the curriculum. And it is fair to 
demand that this contribution shall be fairly clear and 
definite. The existing fund of human knowledge and 
culture is so great that only a few very minute frag- 
ments of it can be taught in school. In any case a 
selection is necessary. When, therefore, that which 
must be rejected is immensely greater than that 
which can possibly be taught, why, in making up the 
curriculum, should not that which is remote and un- 
related to life be cast aside, and that which is of 
vital importance be retained ? 

The Second. — But, as suggested above, another 
thing is also needful in the socialization of the cur- 
riculum. Not only must the content actually be re- 
lated to real life, it must be presented to the pupil 
so that he can see its relation and see it rather clearly. 
We do not. mean by this that every item and detail of 
each study must be so interpreted for the pupil. This 

186 



SOCIAL IDEAL IN THE CURRICULUM 

would be impossible, if for no other reason than indi- 
vidual differences in mental ability in the pupils them- 
selves. Our point is rather that this sense of reality 
shall be the rule rather than the exception. 

Relation to Immediate Interests. — Moreover, by re- 
lation to life is meant not merely relation to some re- 
mote future life, but, first of all, this immediately 
present life of the pupil's school days. To be sure, 
his school work must prepare for the future, but, if 
this is the only appeal it can make to him, he will not 
become very enthusiastic over it. It is his present 
life in which he is mainly interested. And what is 
this present life? Some people imagine it is only a 
life of play, and play it largely is, and should be. 
But the boy, and the girl, too, have other interests 
than those of play. They are keenly alive to much 
else that goes on in the world. Their range of vision 
is limited, of course, but is constantly growing. They 
are interested in what they see men and women ab- 
sorbed in. They want to know about the work go- 
ing on about them. They like to see things made, 
and like to have the processes of making explained to 
them. They are glad to try their own hands, de- 
lighted with the opportunity of showing that they 
also have power. All normal children, in fact, are 
curious about almost everything that takes the atten- 
tion of adult society. 

Children's Interest in the World's Work. — It takes 
very little effort to interest children in the various 
phases of the everyday work of the world. Certainly 
a part of their education should consist in introducing 
them to this rich, throbbing, compelling life, which 
they find on every side. It needs explanation, too : 

i8 7 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

its most important features must be pointed out and 
discussed, the different ways men have of making a 
living must be explained. The child must be made 
to observe more and more the conditions of success- 
ful work in different vocations. He must learn about 
the most important products of human skill and in- 
genuity, about foods and fabrics, about metals, clays, 
and woods, about the wonders of steam and electric- 
ity and their relation to human life. He must under- 
stand how the raw materials for all the highly 
wrought products of human labor come from the 
earth, why conservation is necessary for the good of 
everybody, how labor is essential to human happiness 
and well-being. He must have pointed out to him 
how men must work together, the value of coopera- 
tion, and how, underneath all else, is society's funda- 
mental need that men should deal justly and honestly 
with one another. 

In these, and in many other things, boys and girls 
are interested. They are realities to them, nor does 
this fact detract from their value as preparation for 
mature life. In fact, as childhood turns into youth 
the interest in what one is going to be and do to make 
a living comes strikingly to the foreground. 

Summary. — Thus, our answer to the question — 
What do we mean by relation to life — is a double 
one. We mean that the school work shall be 
related both to the child's present interest in the 
real world of adult activities and to the interest he 
soon develops in his own life's work. Both of these 
connections must be made between the school and 
life. Both interests interact and enrich each other. 
Ultimately they are but sides of the same impulse, 

188 



SOCIAL IDEAL IN THE CURRICULUM 

the impulse to be a real man or woman in the real 
world as over against the world of remote abstrac- 
tions, dead languages, and mathematical formulcc. 
Not that these are objectionable, but if they are to 
play any genuine part in the education of the boy, 
they must prove to him that they are connected in 
some vital way with the life he has to lead. In not 
every part of school work, nor at all times in the 
school, can this appeal to real life be made. The boy 
must be trained in school to work; he may even need 
to be drilled in many things that will seem to him at 
the time to be but little better than drudgery. But 
this need not, and must not, be the prevailing condi- 
tion in his school training. Over all the work which 
partakes of drudgery must fall ever and anon the 
gleam of reality. The pupil must feel more and more 
that he is at least getting a lot of good stuff for just 
those things that seem worth while to actual boys and 
girls. 

Curriculum Satisfies Children's Interests. — Fortunate- 
ly most of the school studies, if they are properly 
taught, are capable of satisfying in some degree the 
child's interest in the real world. They are not en- 
tirely foreign to normal, healthful human desires. 
The first step, then, toward the attainment of a more 
socialized course of study is that the schools make 
use of the opportunities they already have in the cur- 
riculum as it stands. Let the teachers feel more 
keenly, as they teach arithmetic and geography, or 
history, that they are interpreting human interests to 
the children. Let them reflect that these studies have 
not always existed ready-made for the mere purpose 
of giving mental training. They are selections out 

189 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

of the rich fund of race experience, selected because 
they are supposedly adapted to introducing the child 
to a sympathetic and efficient understanding of that 
experience. But, if they are to accomplish that re- 
sult, they must be taught from that point of view 
and not as so much external material to be learned. 

How can this social point of view in the various 
studies be actually carried out? This is really what 
we are interested in here, rather than in any general 
discussion of principles. How can the real teacher 
in the real school-room develop such ideas as have 
here been suggested ? To answer such questions fully 
would require a special book on the socialization of 
the curriculum. But a few things can be said to indi- 
cate the lines along which practical endeavors must 
proceed. 

Oral Reading. — The first practical suggestion is the 
one , given above, namely, that the teacher have the 
right point of view. This means that he should teach 
oral reading, for example, not as a mere isolated ac- 
complishment, but as a tool of definite social value. 
Of course, even the best teacher will have to give a 
good deal of attention to the mere mechanics of read- 
ing, but mechanical skill is only a means to an end, 
and it should never at any stage of the process of 
learning overshadow the real end in view. This end 
is that we may communicate something contained on 
a printed or written page to others, for their enter- 
tainment or instruction. When children read in a 
class, they usually all read the same selections. As 
every pupil knows what every other one is to express, 
the main motive for good reading is absent. Why 
take pains to express the thought well, when all know 

190 



SOCIAL IDEAL IN THE CURRICULUM 

it or can see it for themselves? Again, why should 
one listen to another read except to hear and enjoy? 
The ordinary method of teaching reading deprives 
the child of even the social motive for listening. He 
listens, not that he may share the interesting experi- 
ence which his fellow pupil is communicating, but 
that he may detect technical errors, mispronuncia- 
tions, wrong inflections, and the like. 

As over against this method, which sees in reading 
an individual accomplishment only, the socialized 
method will seek all sorts of ways of emphasizing the 
social significance and utility of that art. That the 
means of doing this will vary with the age and ad- 
vancement of the pupil one can readily see. In every 
grade of the school the underlying motive for all 
reading must be the interesting and effective com- 
munication of thought. Excellence in reading will be 
constantly estimated by the degree in which the pupil 
succeeds in doing this. Children may read different 
things in their classes, and thus gain genuine experi- 
ence in oral communication. The value of reading 
as a social tool will be discussed, and the wide range 
of experience that the good reader can make his own 
will be pointed out. It is often noted that children 
begin to learn to read with much interest and, after 
a year or two of excellent progress, lose interest, and 
cease to improve any further. This is less apt to oc- 
cur where the pupil feels he is reading for a purpose, 
especially if he sees it is a means of bringing him 
into touch with other people and of helping him to 
share in their thoughts. Reading thus becomes a fas- 
cinating social tool, capable of bringing to one all 
sorts of social pleasures and social satisfactions. 

191 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

Writing. — In the same way writing may be trans- 
formed from an isolated act of skill to an important 
social instrument. When a boy has something to 
communicate to another he has a motive for writing 
on the basis of which all desirable proficiency in the 
mechanics of writing can be developed. 

Socialized Geography. — On the side of the informa- 
tional studies, geography may serve as one illustra- 
tion. It is usually taught as a mass of miscellaneous 
facts about the earth, its products, people, and coun- 
tries. Such geography as this can be committed to 
memory and it satisfies a certain inferior type of curi- 
osity. The ideal of attainment is that the mind may 
be stored with as large a collection of facts as possi- 
ble as was the case of a little girl of the "school of 
day-before-yesterday", who was marked high in her 
geography because she could answer 117 questions on 
the map of North America, J 3 questions on the map 
of Europe, and so on. But this is not geography in 
any proper sense of the word. Real geography should 
interpret to the child many important human relations 
and human activities. "The essence of any geographi- 
cal fact is the consciousness of two persons, or two 
groups of persons who are at once separated and 
connected by the physical environment, and the inter- 
est is in seeing how these people are at once kept 
apart and brought together in their actions by the in- 
strumentality of this physical environment. The ulti- 
mate significance of lake, river, mountain, and plain 
is not physical, but social ; it is the part which it plays 
in modifying and [assisting] human relationships. 
[Commercial geography] has not to do simply with 
business, in the narrow sense, but includes whatever 

192 



SOCIAL IDEAL IN THE CURRICULUM 

relates to human intercourse and intercommunication, 
as affected by natural forms and properties." * 

From a social point of view, then, the purpose of 
geography in the schools is to give boys and girls some 
intelligent idea of their relation to their physical and 
social environment. Every fact of physical, political, 
and even mathematical geography is capable of being 
related to human life and to human effort. Much of 
it can be related in one way or another to the pupils 
themselves. Facts of climate, of mountains and riv- 
ers, and of products of the soil in remote parts of 
the earth often affect in intimate ways the health and 
welfare of American school children. A fact that 
affects us in some way is far more significant than 
one which does not. Step by step the pupil can be 
led out to an understanding of other people in their 
various modes of life and work either as they con- 
tribute to his own happiness or help him to appreciate 
his own problems of work. 

Experience of Some Elementary Schools. — Some ele- 
mentary schools have actually taken up a large part 
of geography through this study of the relation of 
the industries and products of other countries to the 
life of their own city. They have studied in detail 
how lines of commerce from all over the world con- 
verge at their door, how the manifold industries and 
commercial enterprises of the city depend upon this 
cooperation with lands and peoples widely scattered. 
The products of the Amazon Valley, or of China, are 
discussed in their relation to their own lives. A more 
formal logical study of the subject might be desirable 

* John Dewey, "Ethical Principles Underlying Education," 
The Third Yearbook of the National Herbart Society. 

193 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

at a later period, but, for children in the grades, this 
method is far more effective. The principal of a large 
city school, where geography is thus taught, empha- 
sized the enthusiasm of the children in tracing all 
sorts of relationships, in gathering materials, in the 
way of pictures, specimens, magazine articles, and 
relevant information from other books than the text. 
This method furnished large opportunity for individ- 
ual initiative, for much valuable social cooperation. 
The pupils felt themselves individually responsible for 
the progress of the study; each had a chance to con- 
tribute something to the general store of information. 
Such pupils were not studying mere geography, but 
rather their own life interests as these were affected 
by the wide world. 

Socialized History. — As another illustration of 
needed socialization we may take history. Here, 
again, it is possible for the pupil to spend most of his 
time memorizing miscellaneous facts, with little ap- 
preciation that these facts may have any connection 
with the understanding of present-day affairs. Of 
course, there are all degrees of connection between 
historic facts and the pupil's own life. History pre- 
sents information as far apart in value as Charle- 
magne's large nose, Cromwell's wart, the English 
Bill of Rights, and the Monroe Doctrine. 

As Professor Dewey says : * "History is vital or 
dead to the child, according as it is or is not presented 
from the sociological standpoint. When it is treated 
simply as a record of what has passed and gone it 
must be mechanical, because the past is remote. The 
ethical [and social] value of history teaching will be 

* Op. cit. 

194 



SOCIAL IDEAL IN THE CURRICULUM 

measured by the extent to which it is treated as a 
matter of analysis of existing social relations. " The 
pupil must see, through his study of history, how 
many different forces have cooperated to make our 
present world what it is; it should help him to grasp 
the idea that all existing institutions are growths, evo- 
lutions, and that they can be rightly understood only 
as they are viewed with the background or perspec- 
tive furnished by history. The pupil can understand 
the fact of progress only as he studies other times and 
peoples. He needs to know, for instance, something 
of the corruption in the early political life of the 
United States, not in order to be self-complacent over 
any later improvement, but that he may be fired with 
a zeal to make our political life still cleaner and 
more worthy. 

In the study of United States history all. of the 
lines of development in such problems as slavery, 
money, tariff, constitutional interpretation, industrial 
expansion, and labor, and a score of other subjects, 
can profitably be worked out with definite reference 
to the fuller understanding of modern complex condi- 
tions. Where there is no direct connection to be 
made, no chain of causes and effects to be worked out, 
there is still much of social value. In story and in 
biography the pupil has usually suggestive pictures 
of human life and struggle, which inspire him to 
greater effort himself. They often represent typical 
situations, which are illuminating for all time. It is 
important, however, that the characters in the his- 
torical narratives or stories should be treated in their 
relation to the community life behind them. The re- 
lation and the responsibility of the hero to the life 

i95 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

that surrounds him is a most important lesson to 
bring home to boys and girls. 

To quote again from Professor Dewey:* "What 
the normal child continuously needs is not so much 
isolated moral lessons, instilling into him the impor- 
tance of truthfulness and honesty, or the beneficent 
results that follow from some particular act of patri- 
otism. It is the formation of habits of social im- 
agination and conception. I mean by this it is neces- 
sary that the child should be forming the habit of 
interpreting the special incidents that occur and the 
particular situations that present themselves in terms 
of the whole social life. The evils of the present in- 
dustrial and political situation are not due so much 
to actual perverseness on the part of individuals con- 
cerned, nor to mere ignorance of what constitutes the 
ordinary virtues as to inability to appreciate the social 
environment in which we live. It is tremendously 
complex and confused. . . . Most people are left at 
the mercy of tradition, impulse, or the appeals of 
those who have special and class interests to serve." 
History, if rightly taught, should be an important in- 
strument in creating this greater intelligence which is 
so needful for real social efficiency. 

Other Studies. — The other ordinary school studies 
have many of the same possibilities of socialization as 
those discussed above. They might be summarized 
in the words of Dean James E. Russell, from his ar- 
ticle, "The School and Industrial Life" : f 

The quantitative measurements of arithmetic will find 

* Op. cit. 

■}• Educational Review, December, 1909. 

196 



SOCIAL IDEAL IN THE CURRICULUM 

concrete application in every step of the industrial proc- 
ess, from the first step of production of the raw ma- 
terials to the end of the series, when goods are turned 
to practical use. How much, how many times, how 
often, in what proportion, at what cost, are questions 
which must be answered by the child at every turn. The 
computations called for in the manufacture, transporta- 
tion, and final distribution of any commodity are in daily 
use in trade and commerce, and should be the staple re- 
quirement of the school. Nothing will vitalize the study 
of arithmetic more than to create in the school a need 
for quantitative measurement and for the employment of 
business methods in business affairs. 

Such a situation suggests clearly the place and scope 
of commercial training in the upper grades or high 
school for those who are in training for commercial vo- 
cations. The natural distribution of metals, fuels, clays, 
and other earth /naterials, the climate and physiographic 
conditions which determine the location, amount, char- 
acter, and availability of our flora and fauna, the factors 
which control transportation by land and water — these 
are problems in geography which become concrete and 
vital in the study of industries. The correlations are so 
obvious that only a stupid teacher can miss them. 

In nature study we shall find a real place for the ele- 
ments of agriculture and forestry; no longer aimless 
meandering in any scientific field, but definite attention 
to those occupations concerned with the production of 
materials good for food, clothing, and shelter, the con- 
ditions calculated to give best results, and the resistance 
which men meet in doing their work. The growing of 
any crop, even in a window garden, will epitomize the 
farmer's labors in tilling the soil, supplying plant food, 
utilizing light, heat, and air, overcoming disease and 

197 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

insect pests, and reaping his harvest. Every step takes 
on new meaning when the learner sees its place in the 
series of operations culminating in the commercial food 
supply of his own community, its sanitary regulation and 
domestic consumption. 

The elements of physiology and hygiene, and of 
physics and chemistry, are also called into requisition; 
they are all indispensable in fixing values of industrial 
products and determining economy in technical opera- 
tion. What makes for hygienic living is as well worth 
knowing from the economic standpoint as what mechani- 
cal appliance will most increase the output. A proper 
study of the industries, therefore, I contend, will bring 
about a unified and closely correlated course in the bio- 
logical and physical sciences by way of supplying the 
information wanted by the child in adjusting himself to 
the real world. 

Conclusion. — Thus far we have been trying to see 
how the school studies themselves may be brought 
into more direct relation to life. There is, however, a 
special phase of this problem, which we must reserve 
for separate discussion. We have had little to say 
of the boys' and girls' vocational interests. These 
are really the most important of all the means for 
vitalizing school work. In fact, it is about the prepa- 
ration for a life career that all school activities should 
ultimately center. Fortunately there is no other in- 
terest more keen in normal boys and girls, and it is 
on this basis, then, that the most important socializa- 
tion of the curriculum is to be worked out. This we 
shall take up in the next chapter. 



198 



CHAPTER XII 

THE VOCATIONAL INTEREST AND SOCIAL 
EFFICIENCY 

Characteristics of a Socialized Curriculum. — In the 

last chapter it was pointed out that the socialization 
of the regular work of the school demands that that 
work be connected in two ways with the life of the 
pupil : first, with his actual present life and interests, 
and, secondly, with his future life as a working mem- 
ber of society. The pupil should feel that his school 
work is real, because it satisfies his impulse to un- 
derstand the world of which he is now a part. It was 
pointed out that every school study can contribute in 
some degree to this end. As the pupil grows older 
he naturally becomes more and more interested in his 
own future as a member of the adult community. 
This interest in the future, as fast as it develops, 
should find definite satisfaction through the work he 
is required to do in school. 

Early Appearance of Vocational Interests As was 

suggested, these two lines of connection between the 
school and social life are not entirely separate. In 
fact, one easily flows into the other. The strong in- 
terests of childhood are the forerunners of the domi- 
nant interests of manhood. They furnish the basis 
upon which vocational purposes gradually come to 
consciousness and develop. The continuance of child- 

199 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

hood interests into maturity has recently been studied 
and reported by Professor E. L. Thorndike. He 
found a high correlation between interests of children 
in the upper elementary grades and the interests they 
possessed in their later college years. There is a 
strong probability, according to this study, that what 
interests the child is really an index to what his adult 
ability will be, and forecasts with reasonable accu- 
racy his vocational career. Such being the case, one 
may see how easily the general interests of the child 
in the life about him may be utilized in connection 
with the "motive for the life-career". As ex-Presi- 
dent Eliot well says, this is a strong and a lasting mo- 
tive, and it should be developed as early as possible. 
Not that the child shall be encouraged to fix himself 
irrevocably to a certain vocation, and as early as pos- 
sible begin to prepare for it, but rather that he shall 
at first, in a general way, begin to look forward into 
the future, and, as he grows older, more and more 
definitely. He must feel increasingly that his present 
work may actually count in preparing him for his life 
work. This interest is usually so keen that it fur- 
nishes the strongest of motives for efficient work in 
the upper elementary grades and in the high school. 

Relation to Elimination from School. — As is well 
known, the rapid elimination of pupils from these 
grades is partly and even largely caused by the eager- 
ness of children to get to work. Some, it is true, 
have to work as soon as the compulsory school period 
is past, but many do not need to do so. They could 
just as well stay in school a little longer and would 
do so if they felt that the school were really doing 
them any good. As far as they can see, its tasks are 

200 



THE VOCATIONAL INTEREST 

in no way related to this impelling motive of a life- 
career, and so they drop out in the blind hope that 
they may find outside of school what they do not see 
that they are getting within. This vocational interest 
should receive more and more attention, as the pupil 
advances through the grades, because it is capable 
of becoming one of the most effective methods of 
vitalizing his work. 

Inadequacy of "General Training." — We may wish 
that we might keep the boy upon a general, or 
purely cultural, training for a few more years. But 
it is a condition we have to face, not a theory. The 
bald fact of the case is, the more general, cultural 
work grips only a few of the boys, and, in most cases, 
not the vigorous, active ones, at that. When an ac- 
tive boy is really interested in this general work it is 
usually because he sees in it a real preparation for a 
career. Try how it will, the school cannot escape the 
necessity of recognizing the vocational interest if it is 
to hold its pupils. It might as well cease to look at 
this interest as a call to compromise with something 
low and unworthy and frankly accept it as an asset of 
inestimable worth. 

Aim of This Chapter. — The object of this chapter is 
not a general discussion of the problem of vocational 
education. It is rather an attempt to estimate its 
social significance and to point out the way in which 
the recognition of the vocational motive in the school 
and the definite adjustment of the school to vocational 
needs are parts of the large problem of realizing the 
ideal of social efficiency. 

Social Significance of Vocations. — First of all let us 
note the social significance of vocations themselves. 
14 201 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

They are natural products of social progress. They 
represent specializations or divisions of labor which 
are made necessary by increase in the complexity of 
social life. Furthermore, vocations are essential to 
the maintenance of civilized society. The needs of 
civilized society are such as can be met only by large 
numbers of trained skilled workers. Vocations also 
have a deep moral and intellectual significance, both 
for the individual and for society. It is of ines- 
timable moral value to a man or woman to have some- 
thing definite and worth while to do — a work which 
engrosses his attention and utilizes a large part of his 
mental and physical energy. This moral value is espe- 
cially prominent in skilled work. A skilled worker 
acquires a certain sense of personal worthfulness 
which is a most important element in the building up 
of a sound moral character, as well as in the develop- 
ment of a socially efficient individual. Those classes 
of society which are sometimes called "higher", which 
have never felt the stress of economic necessity, tend 
to produce many non-workers who show clear signs 
of moral degeneration. 

The social value of the vocation and of vocational 
training is clearly brought out in the experiments in 
Vegro education. There is no question but that social 
betterment has resulted to the members of that race 
who have received industrial training. Booker T. 
Washington says: "From both a moral and a re- 
ligious point of view, what measure of education the 
begro has received has been repaid, and there has 
been no step backward in any state. Not a single 
graduate of the Hampton Institute or the Tuskegee 
Institute can be found to-day in any jail or state peni- 

202 



THE VOCATIONAL INTEREST 

tentiary. . . . The records of the South show that 
90 per cent, of the colored people in prison are with- 
out knowledge of the trades, and 61 per cent, are illit- 
erate." 

What Reformatories Have Done. — The experience of 
reformatories is even more significant. A large num- 
ber of delinquents and criminals have never received 
training for any lines of productive skilled work. 
The best reformatories, therefore, offer opportunities 
for vocational training. The United States Indus- 
trial Commission on Prison Labor, in 1900, said: 
"In many penal institutions labor is the essential ele- 
ment in the reform training of the individual, and 
through it he becomes accustomed to the habits of 
industry, proficient in the use of tools, and is made 
to feel that he has ability within himself for the earn- 
ing of an honest livelihood. The plan that is being 
used in some institutions, of allowing prisoners to 
look forward to the certainty of being employed upon 
a better grade of work as the reward of industry, 
acquired proficiency, and good conduct is certain to 
lead to results of greatest benefit to the prisoner, to 
the institution, and to the state. The prisoner's am- 
bition and interest are aroused, and he is encouraged 
to pursue a course which should end in his acquiring 
a useful trade. Society at large is benefited by any- 
thing that tends to better the condition of the prisoner 
in the way of improving his opportunities of earning 
an honest livelihood after his release." * 

The work of the George Junior Republic, at Free- 
ville, N. Y., is a striking illustration of the moral 

* Quoted by F. J. Leavitt, Examples of Industrial Educa- 
tion. 

203 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

and social value of work. The motto of this school 
is "Nothing without Labor", and the practical appli- 
cation of this ideal has accomplished marvels in the 
reformation of the delinquent and in building up a 
sturdy robust character in the morally weak. 

Vocational Education and Social Efficiency. — From 
such facts as these we turn back to the problem of the 
vocational interest and of vocational training in the 
regular education of boys and girls. That training 
for vocational efficiency is the most important means 
of training for social efficiency there cannot be the 
slightest doubt. Nor need such a training in any 
sense be a narrow one. As Dr. Kerschensteiner, of 
Munich, says : "It lies within our power to make 
an education for a calling as many-sided as any edu- 
cation can be. Well nigh every calling, if treated 
with sufficient thoroughness, naturally involves an en- 
largment of the field of conception and activity. Sci- 
ence enters to-day into the simplest work and incites 
all possessed of the necessary gifts to develop their 
knowledge, their dexterity, and their initiative. In- 
deed experience has shown that the path of early 
education for a calling may lead to very much better 
results than the path of early general education with 
no definite calling as its goal." 

The frank recognition of the vocational interests in 
all children, the appreciation of these interests as 
among the most important assets in the formation of 
socially efficient men and women, and the definite 
organization of the school studies from the upper 
elementary grades through the high school about these 
interests is one of the most far-reaching methods 
within our reach of realizing the social ideal in edu- 

204 



THE VOCATIONAL INTEREST 

cation. The problem of working it out successfully 
in its various details is one of the greatest ones con- 
fronting the modern civilized state. 

Beginnings in the Elementary Grades. — Thus far the 
students of the subject seem to agree that the begin- 
nings in the upper elementary grades should be made 
through acquainting children with the products and 
modes of present-day industry. In many schools the 
study of human industry has been confined to a study 
of primitive forms, for example, primitive modes of 
weaving, of pottery, and so forth. It is unfortunate, 
however, to stop with these when there is so much 
the children need to know and can easily learn about 
these things as they occupy men and women to-day. 
The words of Dean Russell are very pertinent at this 
point : 

A child should acquire in these years a fairly well- 
rounded conception of textile processes and become fa- 
miliar with the most important types of textile products. 
Spinning is an important industry in modern life; it 
means yarns for all manner of fabrics made from a great 
variety of raw materials; it means thread of all kinds; 
it means cordage. How many of our school children, 
how many adults, have any adequate conception of 
the extent of these industries or their bearing on every- 
day life? And yet the processes are simple, and, by ac- 
tual demonstration, supplemented by illustrations cut 
from current magazines or by visits to neighboring fac- 
tories, the lesson can be taught in such a way as to make 
the learning a delight and the knowledge a permanent 
possession. On leaving the elementary school every 
child should know, it seems to me, the characteristics 
of cotton, wool, silk, and linen, both in the spun and 

205 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

woven forms, and have some notion of their value as 
determined by the processes to which they have been 
subjected. A proper combination of handwork, the ap- 
plication of design and the giving of information should 
produce the desired results without strain and with con- 
stantly increasing interest in the study. At the end of 
a high school course, possibly at the end of the gram- 
mar school, a girl should be able not only to make many 
articles of clothing, but also to discriminate in the choice 
of fabrics by reference to what she has learned in school 
concerning the nature of the several materials and the 
processes of manufacture. . . . Once accept the 
proposition that this is worth doing, and the time can 
be easily found, and some day we shall have teachers 
prepared to do the work. 

Again, let me illustrate from another field — from the 
clay industries. Children like to make mud pies. The 
kindergarten turns this aptitude to good use in fashion- 
ing things by hand molding. Of late, primary teachers 
have adopted clay as a convenient medium for expres- 
sion of art forms. The result is thirty plaques, thirty 
ink wells, or thirty vases — all very pretty, decorated and 
glazed, when put in a row on exhibition day. So far 
I have no criticism. My complaint is that they stop 
right there. The chief processes in the clay industries 
are very few: hand-molding, turning on the potter's 
wheel, pressing into set forms, and building up in per- 
manent shape, as in cement and concrete construction. 
Why not, then, pass from hand-molding, which can be 
approached through primitive types, to the use of the 
potter's wheel? A single demonstration of this machine, 
with the use of illustrations, which may be had in abun- 
dance, will give the clue to the entire round of the pot- 
tery industries. A few samples, varying from unglazed 

206 



THE VOCATIONAL INTEREST 

earthenware to fine china, will complete the teaching 
equipment. 

Next come brick and terra-cotta. But who has ever 
heard of brick-making in school? I should like to hear 
of it, because it is an immense industry, the products 
of which are visible on every hand — soft brick, hard 
brick, fire brick, red brick, yellow brick, ornamental 
brick, terra-cotta. 

Why should not our children know more about these 
things than we do? I venture to say that ten hours of 
instruction judiciously spread over two or three years, 
and properly correlated with nature study and geography, 
will give to sixth grade children a better appreciation of 
one of the staple building materials than ninety out of 
every hundred adults have to-day. ... I might 
illustrate my point by any of the staple foods, by glass, 
by woods, or by metals. The working up of these ma- 
terials, the getting them ready for use, do not involve 
many processes. The combination of processes is most 
intricate and the variety of products simply indescribable, 
but with an eye single to typical ways by which raw 
materials are transformed it is not impossible to leave 
with twelve-year-old children a lasting impression of the 
modes of operation in any industry and the nature of 
the most important results.* 

Class Excursions. — In some cities the class excursion 
is an important aid to bringing the children of the 
grades into touch with these things. A recent report 
of the Superintendent of Schools of St. Louis com- 
ments thus on the value of the excursion : 

The thing that the country boy is in touch with all 

* "The School and Industrial Life," Educational Review, 
December, 1909. 

207 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

the time the city boy many times passes by and does 
not see. He really does not see the city because of the 
houses. He is distanced and lost in the rushing multi- 
tude of things, and in his confusion gets hold of very 
little outside of a narrow circle of experience. The 
country boy is with nature and grown-up folks. He 
just has to know something very accurately about cows 
and horses, corn and potatoes, about how men work, 
and what they do with the products of their labor. His 
life is more nearly participation in the whole life about 
him. The city boy lives apart from his father's life, 
and in many cases from his mother's life. . . . He 
is kept a child in a child's world till suddenly he awakens 
to the fact that he is shoved into the whirl of adult 
human activity, and that he does not know enough about 
it to help himself or others well. 

On the social side the city gives a much more extended 
opportunity for seeing the range of men's interests and 
work, but the city child cannot get at these things by 
himself as well as the country child can get at the cor- 
responding interests in his sphere. The village smithy 
stands with wide open door, and the boy and the smith 
have no difficulty in getting acquainted and profiting by 
the acquaintance. The door of the city business house 
or manufactory is sealed to the child, because nobody has 
thought that he can look in without disturbing the work. 
In the very place where human life should be richest in 
its social contact the child is more shut out than he 
would be in the country. 

These contacts and experiences that come to the chil- 
dren by the simplicity of social relations in the country 
must be brought about in the city by some organized 
play of parents and teachers to take children into many 
places where men are engaged in their daily work, that 

208 



THE VOCATIONAL INTEREST 

the children may know how each contributes to his fel- 
low's welfare, and that they may have some widened 
experience to serve them when they come to choose what 
they intend to do as men. Excursions of classes for this 
purpose are welcomed whenever they ask for admission, 
and there is no surer way of putting a child in sympathy 
with the life about him or of fitting him for intelligent 
participation in that life. A number of our schools have 
realized during this year the opportunity given by these 
visits to the industries of the city for arousing the gen- 
uine interest of the pupils and of broadening their ex- 
perience. 

The quarries have told them of the myriads of lives 
that animated the skeletons now compressed into stone, 
and of the changes through which this stone must still 
further go to serve the uses of man. The furniture fac- 
tory has taken them in imagination back to the woods 
and has shown how the skill and art of man have made 
the trees minister to his comfort. At the weather bureau 
they have learned how dependent the business of the 
world is upon the conditions of the air. In the courts 
and in the postoffice they have gotten some notion of 
the social institutions. In these and other ways these 
schools have turned the seeming prison house of the city 
into a world throbbing with human interests and full of 
opportunity for him who will open his eyes and heart. 

Vocational Studies in Upper Grades. — By the time the 
pupils have entered the seventh or eighth grade of 
the elementary school the work should begin to be 
differentiated to meet the more or less definite inter- 
ests in various vocations. Such a differentiation of 
work should not, of course, fix boys and girls un- 
changeably in certain vocations. The instruction will 

209 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

still be generalized and there will always be possi- 
bilities of later readjustments to meet possible changes 
of interest and enlargements of vision. 

New York State Plan. — The New York State Edu- 
cation Department advocates the following scheme: 

The larger part of the work of the present two upper 
grades will be uniform, but some differentiation, looking 
finally to complete separation, will begin at that time. 
Three distinct courses of study, or classes of schools, 
will follow the elementary school period: (a) a high 
school system looking to entrance into college; (b) busi- 
ness schools looking to work in offices, stores, etc.; (c) 
industrial and agricultural schools looking to the train- 
ing of workers in these vocations. This plan provides 
that pupils in the (a) division will commence some study 
of a modern foreign language, if they are needed for 
the literary and classical high school; that in the (b) 
division some special commercial studies will be intro- 
duced for pupils headed for advanced business schools; 
and that in the (c) division special training with tools 
and in the household and domestic arts will be offered 
for those who are to go on to the trade schools or agri- 
cultural high schools. This restratification will make it 
possible for pupils, teachers and parents to direct their 
energies toward the work that pupils are ultimately to 
do, and by the time the children have completed the 
eighth or ninth year they will find abundant opportunity 
to this end, besides some enthusiasm for a school which 
qualifies them for their lifework, whether it is profes- 
sional, industrial, or along the lines of business activity.* 

Its Value. — The value of some such plan as this is 

* From Dean's The Worker and the State, pp. 325-6. 

210 



THE VOCATIONAL INTEREST 

that it makes a definite appeal to the youth's vocational 
impulse when it begins to assume a large place in his 
life. It furnishes a real motive and aim for his school 
work which he is liable otherwise to wish to drop 
altogether. The presence of such a motive is just 
now a most vital matter. The boy and his later edu- 
cation, whatever it may be, cannot possibly suffer 
from his having it. It will vitalize and render mean- 
ingful many things he would not otherwise get at all. 
Dr. Kerschensteiner well says that "education for a 
calling offers us the very best foundation for the gen- 
eral education of a man". 

Character-forming Influences. — The growing definite- 
ness in a youth's vocational aim may become a marked 
character-forming influence, and this is one of the 
reasons why an education for a calling is the very 
best foundation for a general education. The really 
efficient skilled worker must be a person of good per- 
sonal habits, prompt, courteous, ready to learn, not 
ready to take offence, always willing to give to his 
work the full stint of his ability. More and more is 
the business and industrial world demanding these 
qualities of its employees. 

When children fail to acquire these qualities it is 
often because they have never been made to realize 
that they have any real connection with their future 
success. On the other hand, the clear consciousness 
that one is preparing for a definite vocation is usually 
a powerful incentive to acquire these traits of char- 
acter. Most boys and girls who fail to "make good" 
in the work they turn to are not mentally or morally 
bad. They are defective in their training. They 
have acquired vicious habits, have never learned to 

211 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

be neat, punctual, or courteous, because they never 
supposed these things mattered very much. It is the 
"motive of the life-career" at the center of the youth's 
education that makes these things significant, that 
makes him strive for a character through which it 
may be possible to realize this motive. 

The "general education", just because it is out of 
touch with life, does not lay the exacting conditions 
on children that life lays upon them. It is a matter 
of common knowledge that they are not trained in 
the habit of personal responsibility for themselves 
or their surroundings. Their school work is, for 
instance, largely dictated by the teacher. The pupil 
has little opportunity to develop his independent judg- 
ment or power of choice. His own initiative, even 
though crude, should be called into play. The obedi- 
ence and courtesy exacted of him by the school is 
given grudgingly because it does not appeal to him 
as having any direct connection with his success in 
his school work. It is imposed, as far as he can see, 
just to please the teacher or the principal, and not 
because it can be of any personal use to himself. It 
is natural for healthy-minded boys to react against 
this sort of control. Consequently a good many boys, 
and girls, too, do not get the training for a dependable 
character that they should receive from their school 
life. 

The "Students' Aid Committee." — That a mere "gen- 
eral education" is defective in many of these vital 
points is evident to all those persons who have tried 
to get positions for boys and girls leaving the elemen- 
tary and high schools. The experiences reported by 
the "Students' Aid Committee" of the "New York 

212 



THE VOCATIONAL INTEREST 

City High School Teachers' Association",* are prob- 
ably typical of what might be found in other cities 
and even in smaller towns. A boy who applied to an 
agent of the Committee for help in securing employ- 
ment "was directed to call upon his adviser at nine 
o'clock the following Saturday morning to go to 
interview an employer. He called at eleven instead, 
because his father needed him to go on an errand 
first". A young man was placed by the Committee 
in a promising position, but he left it after a week 
because of some harsh criticism. "His case is typical 
of an increasing class. This young man may have 
had too much teaching and too little learning in his 
school life. He had a ready mind, had acquired a 
great deal of knowledge, but he had never learned to 
take pleasure in solving difficulties for himself." 

The Habit of Personal Responsibility. — This Commit- 
tee believes that the emphasis in elementary education 
upon amusing the pupils has cultivated in them the 
disposition to expect everything to be done for them 
by their teachers, and they never learn to put forth 
any effort to do what they have not been taught or 
told explicitly to do. In the words of the Committee : 

Sometimes a boy gets to feeling that the teacher is 
responsible for his conduct ; from this condition it is easy 
for him to develop the attitude which leads him to do 
things because he wants to and the teacher can't touch 
him. ... I remember one such boy. We stated 
his case fairly to an employer, who afterward agreed 
to give him a trial. After a few weeks in his position 
he was tempted to play a trick on a stupid associate. It 

* Vide Report of 1909 by E. W. Weaver, Chairman. 

213 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

was the kind of a trick which, in school, would have 
secured the boy a holiday until his mother or his father 
could have made arrangements to take a day off to see 
the principal, taken an hour or two of the valuable time 
of that official . . . and generally punished every- 
one but the offender himself. In the business house it 
needed only twenty minutes to help the offender on with 
his overcoat, to give him his pay envelope, and plant 
him on the sidewalk. . . . The power of self-con- 
trol, which is so necessary to those who would get along 
with their fellows, had never been developed in that boy. 

A certain employer of girls who were required to 
attend to machines states that not over ten per cent, 
of those who apply for work are employable. "Be- 
cause of their inability to keep their eyes from wan- 
dering away from their work." The school must de- 
velop in children self-control and self-direction. It 
may often be "that the assigned work employs their 
energies so completely that they lose all desire to 
learn anything which they are not directed or re- 
quired to do by someone in authority". 

Another important quality which a mere "general 
education" may fail to cultivate in children is an in- 
terest in their surroundings and a sense of their re- 
sponsibility for the things they use and handle in 
school. They expect to have things done for them. 
The story is told of a school-board member, "who 
could not be made to see why the taxpayers should 
pay the laundry bills for the domestic science classes 
of the high schools". That member had a better idea 
than his associates of at least one thing that girls 
should learn in school. One other illustration may 
be given. The daughter of a wealthy family, a stu- 

214 



THE VOCATIONAL INTEREST 

dent in a university, had allowed her table in the chem- 
istry laboratory to become untidy and dirty. The 
instructor asked her to clean it up, but she indig- 
nantly replied that she had not been raised as a scrub- 
woman. Whereupon the obliging teacher cleaned up 
himself! These are typical instances of what may 
happen in our schools, and, as far as they go, they 
indicate a failure somewhere, partly within and partly 
without the school, to provide for the formation of 
socially efficient men and women. 

Somehow or other, it must be brought home to all 
boys and girls that all sorts of personal bad habits, 
such as profanity, cigarette smoking, lack of courtesy, 
neatness, truthfulness, honesty, punctuality, willing- 
ness to work and to do one's best for an employer 
really do matter most tremendously. All of these 
undesirable habits are acquired, either because the 
youth has no clear conception of an over-mastering 
interest or purpose in life, or because he has never 
been made to see that such things make any special 
difference anyway. 

We must not, of course, lay too heavy a load upon 
the vocational motive and upon vocational training. 
That, of course, cannot remedy all the ills of our 
social life, and the defects of youth are but part of 
the general defects of our present social order. The 
vocationalizing of education, however, while it cannot 
do everything, can do much, and it is this that it can 
do that concerns us. 

About the problem of vocational and especially in- 
dustrial education has grown up a vast literature into 
which we cannot here penetrate. It deals largely with 
the question of how to organize and administer effec- 

215 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

tive industrial training. The problems of evening 
schools, continuation schools, part-time industrial 
schools, of the proper relation of the vocational 
courses to the "liberal" courses have not as yet, at 
least in this country, been satisfactorily solved. The 
field which is here opened up is a large and interest- 
ing one, but it is one which we must pass over. It 
,is the social need that concerns us. When that need 
is more generally recognized it will be met more ade- 
quately than it is at present. A great obstacle to-day 
to furnishing all boys and girls with proper vocational 
training lies in the lack of such a general public appre- 
ciation of the need as will secure hearty cooperation 
from all those institutions, industries, and individuals 
who should share the burden and the responsibility 
for the undertaking. 

The "Wasted Years." — In considering the need for 
industrial education and its place in the realization 
of the ideal of social efficiency we must not forget 
that its value is quite as much in saving children from 
the so-called "wasted years" of fourteen to sixteen 
as in any positive skill it may give them. These years 
have been called "wasted" because the youth is not 
then usually able to begin to take up a creditable 
trade, and, when he stops school at this time to go to 
work, his energies are very likely to be exploited as 
a messenger, elevator, or delivery boy, or in some 
other types of purely juvenile service. Such work, 
with its initial high wages, does not prepare him 
for any better job. As the years go by he finds him- 
self still working for the child's wage and no better 
able to take up a. man's work than when he left 
school at fourteen. In fact, he may be much less able 

216 



THE VOCATIONAL INTEREST 

at twenty to learn a trade or enter a vocation, for his 
powers have been dwarfed, and the period of his nat- 
ural plasticity has passed. When he can stand the 
juvenile occupation no longer he is a likely candidate 
for the army of the unemployed, those who eke out 
a precarious existence through occasional unskilled 
jobs, or he may even become an unemployable, one 
whom no man would willingly hire if anyone else 
were obtainable. As Bloomfield says, this is "not 
necessarily because of their physical or mental in- 
capacity, but because their economic backbone has 
been broken. The wasted years have landed their 
innocent victims on economic quicksands. Attractive 
wages, with no training, the illegitimate use of youth- 
ful energy, long hours of monotonous uneducative 
work have produced at his majority a young man 
often precocious in evil and stunted in his vocational 
possibilities." 

The Massachusetts Industrial Commission. — This 
body found in Massachusetts, a few years ago, as 
many as 25,000 children, between the ages of four- 
teen and sixteen, out of school, and either doing noth- 
ing or engaged in purely juvenile, or "blind alley oc- 
cupations". Surely the social waste involved in turn- 
ing this army of children loose in the industrial world 
is tremendous — waste of young life, of ambition and 
energy that might be turned to good account if it 
were given two or three years' further training in a 
vocational school. Wasted, also, because of the men- 
ace to society of this growing army of unproductive, 
dissatisfied men and women. 

Compulsory Vocational Education. — If these young 
people could be required to attend trade schools of 
15 217 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

some sort, at least part of the time, if they are at 
work, and all of the time, if they are not at work, 
the situation would be very different. The compul- 
sory continuation schools of Germany, particularly of 
Munich, are organized and administered to meet this 
need. The fact that they do not seek to train merely 
for a narrow skill but for intelligent craftsmanship 
and the keen joy in work which goes with it, and, 
more than all, for the life of good citizens, shows on 
what broad social lines that nation conceives the prob- 
lem of vocational education. 



CHAPTER XIII 

VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE AN AID TO SOCIAL 

EFFICIENCY 

Vocational Guidance. — The correlate of vocational 
education is vocational guidance. It is not sufficient 
to give boys and girls the proper training for a call- 
ing. The machinery of public education must be ex- 
tended until it can exercise some oversight of the 
vocational adjustment of those whom it has trained 
at such expense. As Bloomfield says : "The social 
protection of the young ceases artificially and arbi- 
trarily when the school working certificate is granted. 
This ought not to continue so. On the contrary, 
should not the few years after leaving school be the 
time for the most careful scrutiny by the public? 
While the school authorities are given increasing re- 
sources to train their charges for the demands of 
modern vocational life, should they not be likewise 
empowered to deal with abuse and misapplication of 
society's expensively trained product?" * 

And so the theory and the practice of vocational 
guidance have gradually developed. It promises to be- 
come a valuable adjunct of our public school policy, 
and a most important means of furthering the ideal 
of social efficiency. The work of securing adequate 
vocational adjustment involves many interesting 
problems in the study of human nature and of the 
opportunities as afforded by the modern community 

* Vocational Guidance of Youth. 

219 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

for work of various kinds. And yet, in time past, 
the whole question of vocational adjustment has been 
curiously neglected. 

Conditions of Vocational Success. — Success in a call- 
ing obviously demands two things : first, that it should 
be selected with reference to one's capacities, and, 
secondly, that these capacities should be trained to be 
as effective as possible in the chosen direction. While 
some attention has been given to the latter point, the 
first one has scarcely been approached, hitherto, in 
a really scientific spirit. Parents and teachers have 
failed to see that the interests, even of the child, were 
capable of being studied with any assurance of their 
revealing his adult capacity. The choice of a life 
work has been left to all sorts of chance circum- 
stances, such as the father's vocation, or the example 
of some admired and successful man. Children and 
youths have been allowed to drift along, postponing 
from year to year what might be settled comparatively 
early. The result is all sorts of pitiful misfits, all 
sorts of ineffective applications of valuable energy. 
In the present state of civilized society, with its com- 
plicated divisions of labor, it is harder than ever for 
the youth to find out where he can best take hold and 
do a man's part. More than ever does the need ap- 
pear for wise counsel by those older than himself, 
partly that he may know himself better, and partly 
that he may understand something of the variety of 
opportunities open for new workers. 

Vocational Direction in New York. — One is natur- 
ally appalled by the magnitude of the problem. But 
it is none the less needful to do something to solve 
it, and, when one begins to look into it, one is sur- 

220 



VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 

prised by the many comparatively simple things that 
can be clone in the way of a beginning. It is better 
to do a little in the right direction than nothing. For 
some years the "High School Teachers' Association" 
of New York City has had a "Students' Aid Com- 
mittee", which has systematically endeavored to se- 
cure the favorable vocational adjustment of the young 
men and women leaving the high schools. With this 
end in view, it has studied various occupations, se- 
cured information as to the types of young people 
wanted, the qualifications especially desired, the initial 
wages, and the opportunities afforded for advance- 
ment, etc. Much of this information has been pub- 
lished in the form of inexpensive pamphlets and leaf- 
lets, such as, Choosing a Vocation, A Circular of 
Information for Boys, and a similar one for girls; 
Accountancy as a Profession, and many others. These 
pamphlets contain brief bibliographies of books avail- 
able in the libraries explaining various employments. 
The committee also endeavors to bring the attention 
of employers to "the fact that the schools are willing 
and ready to help them select suitable recruits for their 
service". It offers aid to deserving students in secur- 
ing vacation employment and work in and out of 
school hours, advises with those who are either ready, 
or who are obliged, to leave school about the choice 
of vocations and how they can best fit themselves for 
their chosen life work. 

By a study of "help wanted" advertisements and 
by occasionally going with boys to answer them, they 
have found that there is great need that these young- 
sters be protected and advised, lest they fall victims 
to unscrupulous employers. After securing positions 

221 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

for such as want help they follow them up to see that 
they both do their best and receive square deals. 
When a student has difficulty his case is studied and 
the help or advice he needs is offered. In the preced- 
ing chapter we noted some phases of the work of 
this committee and some of the problems that arise 
in the vocational adjustment of the students. No 
one can read the accounts of its work without being 
convinced that it is of the very greatest social impor- 
tance and that it is a natural and necessary extension 
of the public school enterprise in a very great city. 

The committee regards the work as having passed 
beyond the experimental stage and recommends the 
appointment of a vocational director, who will be 
assisted by specially qualified teachers in every large 
high school. These teachers should act as vocational 
advisers in the schools. To do this they must be 
allowed time in the school program for their extra 
duties and be given facilities for keeping records of 
the students who go out, and for collecting necessary 
information as to opportunities for employment, etc. 

The Boston Vocation Bureau. — The well-known "Vo- 
cation Bureau", of Boston, was started in connection 
with settlement work by the late Professor Frank 
Parsons. His book, Choosing a Vocation, is a valu- 
able work for any high school library. It contains 
helpful questions, by means of which a youth may be 
set to thinking of himself with reference to his fu- 
ture work, and analyses of the personal characteris- 
tics needful for success in many lines of work. Not 
the least suggestive portion of the book is the collec- 
tion of sample interviews of the counselor with ac- 
tual applicants for help. Along with this book every 

222 



VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 

teacher, or at least every superintendent and princi- 
pal, should read Bloomfield's Vocational Guidance of 
Youth* in which the social need of this type of ser- 
vice is pointedly discussed and many sidelights upon 
the practical working-out of the idea in connection 
with the public schools are set forth. 

Its Appeal to Business Men. — It is interesting to 
note that the work has appealed so strongly to the 
business men of Boston that the Chamber of Com- 
merce, in the autumn of 1910, held a Conference on 
Vocational Guidance, which was attended by persons 
from many parts of the country, who wished to get 
in touch with the work in Boston. The School Com- 
mittee of that city has also invited the Vocation Bu- 
reau to formulate a plan of cooperation with the pub- 
lic school officials. The plan suggested was adopted 
by the School Committee, and, with the assistance 
of the Superintendent of Schools, much interesting 
work along the line of vocational guidance has been 
started. At the end of a year the Vocational Commit- 
tee of school masters reported, for instance, that a 
general interest in vocational direction has been 
aroused among the Boston teachers; a vocational 
counselor or committee of such counselors had been 
appointed in every high school and in all but one of 
the elementary schools; vocational card records of 
every elementary school graduate for the year had 
been made and forwarded to the high schools ; stimu- 
lating vocational lectures had been given to many of the 
elementary school graduating classes ; vocational libra- 
ries had been started, the cooperation of philanthropic 
societies and of prominent men in the city had been 

* Riverside Educational Monograph Series. 

223 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

secured, students had been helped and meetings with 
the teachers had been held. They emphasize espe- 
cially the need of further enlightenment of parents, 
teachers, and pupils on the problems of choosing vo- 
cations. The Parents' Associations of Boston have 
already shown their interest in the undertaking. 

Vocational Record Cards. — The cards, prepared by 
the Boston Vocation Bureau, are especially interest- 
ing and significant. They are herewith reproduced : * 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOL VOCATIONAL RECORD CARD 

Name 

School and Class 

Date of birth 

Parent's name 

Residence 

Parent's plans for pupil 

Pupil excels in or likes what subjects? 

Pupil fails in or dislikes what subjects? 

Physique 

Pupil's plan (a trade, a profession, business) 

Attend school, or work next year ? 

What school ? 

Intend to graduate from that school ? 

After High School, what? 

( College — Tech. — Normal — Evg. High — Trade 
School or Spec. School.) 



* For permission to reproduce these cards and the other 
material of the Boston Vocation Bureau, I am indebted to 
the courtesy of Mr. Meyer Bloomfield. They are reproduced 
from his Vocational Guidance of Youth. 

224 



VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 



HIGH SCHOOL VOCATIONAL RECORD CARD 

First Year (Oct. i) 

Name 

From School 

Entered 

Object in attending High School? 

Does intend to graduate? What school after 

High? 

Normal ? 

Technical ? 

College ? 

Preparing for business, trade, or profession ? 



Greatest aptitude 



Third Year (Oct i) 

Have you changed plans since first year? 
If so, what are they ? 



Their Value. — The value of such records, aside from 
the information regarding each pupil thus made avail- 
able, is in setting the boys and girls in the upper ele- 
mentary and high school grades to thinking seriously 
of their future. The importance of early interests 
with reference to a possible life calling is recognized. 
The suggestion is left with the elementary pupil that 
his continuance in school is desirable, and he is led 
to think that the choice of the school he is to attend 
the next year may have a definite bearing upon his 
later choice of a vocation. The high school card 

225 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

which secures written statements from the pupil in 
his first and third years serves to keep the matter be- 
fore his attention and furnishes an important stimulus 
to steadfastness of purpose, not only in remaining in 
school, but in working during his high school days 
toward some definite end. The Boston Home and 
School Association has endeavored to enlist the seri- 
ous thought of the parents as to their children's fu- 
tures by sending to them the following questionaires : 

QUESTIONAIRE FOR PARENTS OF HIGH SCHOOL PUPILS 

1. Are you going to send your boy (or girl) to college? 

2. If so, what college, and why? 

3. Have you in view any occupation for which you wish 

to train your boy (or girl) ? 

4. What occupation do you think your boy (or girl) is 

most adapted to? Has your boy (or girl) received 
any training in preparation for this occupation? 

QUESTIONAIRE FOR PARENTS OF CHILDREN IN THE 
EIGHTH GRADE 

1. Are you intending to send your boy (or girl) to high 

school ? 

2. If so, what high school, and why? 

3. Have you in view any occupation for which you wish 

to train your boy (or girl) ? 

4. What occupation do you think your boy (or girl) is 

most adapted to? Has your boy (or girl) received 
any training in preparation for this occupation? 

The following is a sample of the type of investiga- 
tion of various occupations undertaken by the Voca- 
tion Bureau of Boston: 

226 



VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 

VOCATIONS FOR BOSTON BOYS 

Nature of occupation: Shoe manufacture. 
Date of inquiry: July i, 1910. 

Name of firm 

Address 

Superintendent or employment manager 

Total number of employees : ) _ , ' n 

) Female . . 2,280 

Number of boys, 1,200; girls, 1,000. 

Has there been a shifting in relative numbers of each? 
No. There is a fixed work for each. 



Pay 

Wages of various groups, and ages ? Errand boys, coun- 
ters, carriers, 14 years old, $3.50; assemblers, as- 
sistants, pattern boys, 16 years, $3.50 to $6.00; 
lasters, 20 years, $6.00 to $7.00; other work, 20 
years or more, $8.00 to $12.00 for young men in 
early employment. 

Wages at beginning? $3.50 to $6.00. 

Seasonal? By year. 

Hours per day? 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. To 12 m. on 
each Saturday in summer. One hour nooning. 

Rate of increase? This is very irregular, averaging 
$1.00. 

(a) On what dependent? Not at all on age, but on 

ability and position filled, or on increase in skill 
in a certain process. 

(b) Time or piece payment, any premiums or bonus? 

66 per cent, payment. Premium on certain 
lines for quality and quantity of work, neatness 
of departments, etc. 
227 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

Boys 

How are boys secured? By application to firm, by ad- 
vertising, and by employees. It is impossible to find 
enough. 

Their ages? Fourteen years and up. 

Previous jobs? Nearly all boys come into this industry 
from school. A few come from other shoe factories, 
or from retail shoe stores. 

Previous schooling ? Grammar school, or a certificate of 
literacy, or attendance at night school must be pre- 
sented. 

Are any continuing this training? Yes. Where? In 
public evening schools, Y. M. C. A. classes, and 
Continuation School in Boston. 

The Industry 

A. Physical conditions? Most sanitary, with modern im- 

provements and safeguards, with hospital depart- 
ment and trained nurse. 

B. What variety of skill required? Some mechanical 

skill. The ordinary boy of good sense can easily 
learn all processes. 

C. Description of processes (photos if possible) ? Er- 

rand boys, counters, carriers, assemblers, assistants, 
pattern boys, tasters, trimmers, and work dieing, 
welting, and ironing shoes. Also in office, salesman, 
foreman, manager, or superintendent. 

D. What special dangers? 

Machinery ? The chief danger arises from careless- 
ness. 
Dust? Modern dust removers are used. 
Moisture? Not to excess. 
Hard labor? Steady labor, rather than hard. 

228 



VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 

Strain? Not excessive. 

Monotony? Considerable on automatic machines. 

Competitive conditions of industry? New England is a 
great center of the shoe industry. There is extreme 
competition, but with a world market. 

Future of industry? The future of a staple product in 
universal demand. 

What chance for grammar school boy? He would begin 
at the bottom as errand boy. 

High school graduate? In office or in wholesale depart- 
ment, to become salesman or manager. 

Vocational school graduate? Trade school, giving fac- 
tory equipment, would be best. 

What ©pportunity for the worker to show what he can 
do in other departments? The superintendent and 
foreman study the boy and place him where it seems 
best for him and for the firm. ^ 

Tests 

What kind of boy is desired? Honest, bright, healthy, 
strong. Boys living at home are preferred. 

What questions asked of applicant? As to home, educa- 
tion, experience, and why leaving any former posi- 
tion. 

What tests applied? For office work, writing, and 
figuring. 

What records kept (collect all printed questionaires and 
records) ? Name, address, age, nationality, married 
or single, living at home or boarding, pay, date of 
entering and of leaving. 

Union or non-union? Open shop. 

Comment of employer: Education is better for the boy 
and for us. 

229 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

Will he take boys sent by Vocation Bureau? Yes. 

Will he attend V. B. conferences if asked? Gladly. 

Comment of foreman : Employment bureaus have failed 
us. We look everywhere for boys, but find few such 
as we want. The average boy can apply himself 
here so as to be well placed in life. 

Comment of boys: We have a bowling alley, reading 
room, and library, park, and much to make service 
here pleasant. It is something like school still. We 
mean to stay. Piece-work will give us good pay by 
the time we are tzventy years old. 

Health Board comments: Inhaling naphtha from ce- 
ments and dust from leather-working machines and 
overcrowding and overheating workrooms are to be 
guarded against in this occupation. The danger of 
each injurious process may be prevented by proper 
care. 

The information thus secured is filed on "white 
cards when it presents normal conditions, on yellow 
cards when the occupation is undesirable for any rea- 
son, and on red cards when objectionable or danger- 
ous". It is also put in narrative form and furnished 
to the teachers in the schools. 

Vocational Direction Possible Everywhere. — The study 
of the work in New York and Boston should be very 
helpful to school officers everywhere. Not that it 
may be carelessly initiated, but because it is suggestive 
of many things which can be done, even in small 
towns and with limited means. Every grammar and 
high school principal can inform himself as to what 
is actually being done in the larger centers. He can 
talk to his pupils and teachers of the importance of 
wise choice of a life work; he can point out the per- 

230 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

sonal qualities which make for failure and success. 
He can make a beginning of a collection of books and 
other literature suitable for the use of his school, 
bearing upon the choice of vocations. 

He can explain to them the use of such material 
and direct them in the reading of it at proper times. 
Moreover, in almost every locality, there are men and 
women who can be asked to talk to the school occa- 
sionally upon the openings afforded by their particu- 
lar lines of work. There is no good reason why 
parents, also, in every community should not be in- 
terested in these things, either by questionaires, or, 
better still, through the meetings and discussion which 
may be made possible through Parent-teacher Asso- 
ciations. 

This is not the place to enter into such a subject in 
greater detail. It is sufficient to point the way and to 
emphasize the whole movement for vocational adjust- 
ment as one of the significant and necessary phases 
of public school education and an important influence 
in the practical realization, in a larger number of boys 
and girls, of the ideal of social efficiency. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE METHOD OF INSTRUCTION AS DETER- 
MINED BY THE SOCIAL IDEAL 

Social Ideal Must Affect Instruction. — It will not be 
amiss to say again that an educational program, defi- 
nitely planned along social lines, must not merely 
recognize the social factor in the external relations of 
the school to the community and in the activities of 
the pupils within the school itself, which lie outside 
the immediate work of preparing and reciting lessons. 
It must also extend the social ideal to the studies them- 
selves and to the work of teaching and study. In the 
three preceding chapters we have considered the 
studies and their possible relations to life in general 
and to the vocational motive in particular. We turn 
now to the social aspects of teaching and learning. 
These aspects are of great practical importance, and 
are quite as needful of our attention as the phases 
having to do with the subject-matter itself. Whether 
the school is to produce socially efficient individuals 
or not depends very largely upon the opportunities 
afforded in its regular work for real social partici- 
pation. 

Individual Instruction. — As is well known, the 
teacher is very apt to expect his pupils to study as 
individuals and to recite as individuals. The class is 
regarded as merely an expedient for economically 

232 



THE METHOD OF INSTRUCTION 

handling large numbers of pupils, and not as in itself 
a means of practical value for efficient learning. We 
hear a great deal to-day of the need of more individual 
instruction, especially in the case of the backward and 
the very bright pupils. Some interesting school pro- 
grams have been worked out, with a view to depend- 
ing altogether upon individual instruction, or with a 
view, at least, of affording to certain pupils a large 
amount of personal attention. We should not fail 
to recognize the value of all such efforts. There is 
no doubt much need in all schools for just this sort 
of thing. The difficulties which pupils have in their 
work are, in the last analysis, individual difficulties. 
Moreover, all pupils cannot go at the same rate, and 
it is right that each one should make the best progress 
he can. The bright pupil should not be held back 
simply to keep a more slowly moving class uniform. 
Nor should the slower pupil be hurried ahead to keep 
up with his class, whether he comprehends the work 
the class is doing or not. In the latter case the result 
is almost inevitable that the pupil will fail of promo- 
tion and will be obliged to repeat the work of his 
grade, going again over what he may know, as well 
as over what he may not know. What such a pupil 
needs is either to go at a slower rate in the first place 
or to be given the individual assistance he needs so 
that he may be able to keep up with his class. 

Socialized Instruction. — Let us, then, recognize to the 
full the need of individual instruction. But, along 
with this, we must not neglect also the social phases 
of instruction. The exceptionally backward and the 
exceptionally bright pupils will receive quite as posi- 
tive benefits from group work and from participation 
16 233 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

in a class as will the ordinary pupils. All alike will be 
benefited by socialized, as well as by individual, in- 
struction and neither can be ignored in a good school 
program. Here our problem is to work out the social 
values and to determine ways of realizing them. 

Principles Underlying It. — First of all let us note 
certain underlying principles. All people, whether 
children or adults, when they come together for any 
sort of work are bound to influence one another in 
very real ways. They form what are technically called 
social groups. The work accomplished by a social 
group is not merely the sum of all the bits of work 
done by the individuals contained in it. It may be 
more and it may be less, according to the way the 
group works. The different members may interfere 
with each other, through lack of proper coordination 
of the individual efforts. They may also actually help 
one another to do more. The latter condition is the 
ideal toward which every well-developed company of 
workers should strive. 

Group Influence. — The influence of one person upon 
another can be analyzed and illustrated in many dif- 
ferent directions, but we shall confine ourselves defi- 
nitely to school work and to learning processes. It 
has been shown by careful investigators, for example, 
that children in various types of mental and physical 
tasks do better when working in groups than when 
working alone. And this is true, even when the task 
is seemingly quite dependent upon individual effort. 
It has been found that in regular assignments the 
saving of time in group work over individual work 
is considerable. In specially prepared exercises in 
memorizing it has been found, particularly with the 

234 



THE METHOD OF INSTRUCTION 

younger children of eight and nine, that much better 
results are attained when they work together in the 
same room, though not consciously assisting each 
other, than when they work alone. Some investigators 
think that a higher degree of concentration of atten- 
tion is possible with a group of pupils, even though 
each one may be engaged separately, than when one 
is at work alone. A certain momentum of attention 
is acquired, which seems to be efficient in resisting dis- 
tractions which would disturb the isolated worker. 

It has been suggested, therefore, that the ordinary 
noises of the school-room and the hum of busy pupils 
are a positive help rather than a hindrance to the in- 
dividual worker. The pupils in a class, even though 
they appear to be occupied separately, are really "in 
a sort of mental rapport; they hear, see, and know 
continually what the others are doing, and, thus, real 
class work is not a mere case of individuals working 
together, and their performance the summation of 
the work of many individuals; but there is a sort of 
class spirit, so that, in the full sense of the word, one 
can speak of a group performance, which may be 
compared with an individual performance. The pupils 
are members of a community of workers. The indi- 
vidual working by himself is a different person. . . . 
The child studying school tasks at home is relatively 
isolated; in the class he is one of a social group with 
common aims." * 

In one experiment it was found that the pupils did 

* Professor W. H. Burnham, "The Group as a Stimulus to 
Mental Activity," Science, N. S., Vol. 13, pp. j6i-j66. The 
data in all these paragraphs is drawn largely from the above 
article. 

235 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

not do as well in a test when the teacher was present. 
This suggests an interesting question: Why should 
the teacher have been a disturbing factor? It may 
have been due to a common attitude pupils have 
toward their teachers. They regard teachers not as 
sympathetic co-workers, but as task-masters, as per- 
sons who are watching them to detect faults and mis- 
takes. No one can doubt that the presence of such 
a person when one is trying to do something is a real 
obstacle to good work. The teacher, whose predomi- 
nant attitude is critical, renders the children self- 
conscious, and more likely to make mistakes than if 
the attitude is friendly and helpful. 

Value of Group-work. — The results of many differ- 
ent experiments clearly indicate, then, that there is 
real value in group-work, and that school-study, other 
things being equal, gives better results than home- 
study. These experiments do not, of course, discoun- 
tenance home-study, for that has its place and is 
often very needful to supplement particular phases of 
school- work. What they do point to is the positive 
value of group-activity. In recognizing this value, we 
should admit also that there are differences in pupils, 
and that, while group-work is effective for many, 
there are really some pupils of a less social temper, 
and, possibly, of nervous dispositions, who do not as 
readily fit in with others, and who are actually dis- 
turbed by them. 

Why Valuable. — It would be interesting to deter- 
mine all the factors which tend to make group-work 
efficient. Some of them will readily occur to the 
reader. The mere sight of other people busily en- 
gaged about us acts as a suggestion upon ourselves. 

236 



THE METHOD OF INSTRUCTION 

Without doubt the factor of rivalry enters in, often 
half consciously, but none the less effectively. The 
forces which play upon us when we are engaged with 
others are subtle and yet real. For example, there 
is the indefinable social atmosphere of the school it- 
self. It may be one of cheerful industry, of optimism, 
of success, or it may be less stimulating, if not actu- 
ally depressing. We always do better when we work 
with those who are cheerful and hopeful. 

The Interplay of Personality. — The play of one per- 
sonality upon another in the school is constant, al- 
though it is not always possible to specify every detail 
of that influence. Some children, as well as some 
adults, are more susceptible to certain influences than 
to others. The bad humor of the teacher is mentally 
depressing to some; others may not mind it. In no 
place, more than in the school-room, are poise and 
buoyant self-control more needful. Every word, 
every intonation, every gesture, every expression of 
trust or of distrust, helps or hinders in some degree 
the work of the pupils. It bears a definite relation to 
the intellectual work of the pupils as well as to their 
general deportment. A teacher can do much to in- 
spire his pupils with enthusiasm for the various tasks. 
Difficult things may be learned, hard problems solved, 
with no great thought of the difficulty, because the 
difficulty has not been emphasized. To tell a pupil 
that he has a hard task may sometimes be wise, 
but not always. Sometimes such a thought prevents 
his succeeding with it as quickly as he otherwise 
might. 

An Example. — A very good illustration of the un- 
conscious influence of a stimulating social atmosphere 

237 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

in learning is given in Jastrow's Fact and Fable in 
Psychology. At the time of the Tenth Census, ma- 
chines for tabulating the returns were used in the 
offices in Washington. The use of these machines 
was complicated, in that it required of the operator 
that he remember a large number of arbitrary symbols 
and that he be able quickly to insert a key in the 
proper hole, which was one of about two hundred and 
fifty. It was thought that, after suitable training, a 
person might be able to punch as many as five hun- 
dred and fifty cards per day. This was actually ac- 
complished after several weeks spent in practice on 
the symbols and in using the machine. This record 
was also surpassed in time, but with much nervous 
strain. It was generally admitted that the work was 
hard. After some weeks about two hundred addi- 
tional operators were secured to handle the rapidly 
increasing volume of reports, which were to be tabu- 
lated. These new people were set to work among the 
trained clerks with no preliminary training and with 
no warning that the work was particularly difficult. 
They simply saw others working at a fairly rapid 
pace. In three days some of these "green" recruits 
had caught up with the "old hands", and the first 
records were soon broken. Before the end of the 
work, as many as two thousand two hundred and 
thirty cards in one day were punched by one of the 
new clerks, with no evidence of the nervous strain 
which was at first so marked in the others. What- 
ever else this incident may illustrate, it shows at least 
the power over a learner of a social atmosphere in 
which the thing to be learned is going on smoothly 
and efficiently. The best condition of learning many 

238 



THE METHOD OF INSTRUCTION 

things quickly is merely to be with, and practice with, 
those who already know how. 

Higher Types of Group-work. — Thus far we have 
dwelt only on the mental stimulus which comes by 
working at one's task with others who are also at 
work upon their own tasks. Much of the social value 
of school and of class work is of this type. It is, 
however, only the beginning of the story of the value 
of group- work. The influence of one upon another 
is greatly enhanced when there can be definite com- 
munication, exchange of ideas, and discussion, and 
especially where the work is something that lends 
itself to cooperative endeavor. The old Hebrew prov- 
erb tells us that, just as iron sharpens iron, a man's 
countenance is sharpened by his friend. This is true 
of all the interplay of mental activities in a group of 
people who are occupied with a common undertaking 
or problem. 

Social Contact Stimulates Mental Development. — It is 
certainly true that much of our acuteness of judgment 
and of reasoning is gained by contrasting our ideas, 
through discussion and argument, with those of other 
people. The actual interplay of minds in a good con- 
versation, or discussion, affords valuable data for ex- 
plaining and controlling the development of efficiency 
of mind in the individual. What our individual minds 
would be like without this social interplay from child- 
hood throughout life w r e cannot say, because a com- 
pletely isolated existence is impossible. But we can 
see the effects of degrees of isolation. We do know 
that one who habitually shuts himself off from com- 
munication with others cannot attain a mind of high 
social efficiency, and that such a one is usually marked 

239 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

by individual peculiarities of questionable value, even 
to himself. 

It is, then, in communication and cooperation that 
we find an indispensable means of both individual and 
social development. The stimulating power of con- 
versation, the enlargement of one's capacity for work, 
the increase of personal initiative and enthusiasm, and, 
withal, the restraining influence upon individual 
caprice, through work with others, all these are 
marked characteristics of all social life outside the 
school. The problem of socializing school-method is 
in large measure the problem of adjusting the tasks 
so that opportunities may be afforded within the 
school which are similar to those afforded in the 
life outside. 

Application to School Work. — To begin with, the 
work of study and of recitation must be recognized 
by the teacher, and, if possible, by the pupil, as a series 
of social undertakings. It is this, in fact, even in the 
poorest school, but a value unrecognized falls far 
short of the influence it would have if recognized. 
If it is consciously appreciated it may be developed 
and expanded. In the ordinary study and recitation 
of lessons the social influences are largely of the 
unconscious variety described in the first part of this 
chapter. They are the influences which occur just 
because children and teachers are working together, 
even though at individual tasks. Each child is at 
work for himself and each one displays in the recita- 
tion, perhaps with exultation, perhaps with apathy, 
his own individual accomplishment. But very much 
more would be accomplished if these tasks were made 
opportunities for definite social cooperation. 

240 



THE METHOD OF INSTRUCTION 

Value in "Outside" Life. — When people work to- 
gether in performing a task outside of school, for 
example, in building a house or making a shoe, a 
better result is attained than if they worked sepa- 
rately. Nor does the single person work with any 
less intensity because his efforts are interwoven with 
the efforts of others. In just the same way could not 
the acquisition of such a subject as geography or 
algebra be expedited, and could not more actually be 
acquired in a given time through cooperation than 
through depending solely upon individual effort? 

Are School Conditions Different? — The critical reader 
will at once object that the conditions are different. 
He will say that what each pupil gets he must get 
for himself through his own efforts. This is true, 
and yet it is only half the truth. We do not suggest 
that any pupil shall work less. If cooperative work 
meant diminished effort for each one, there would be 
no profit in it. But when all minds are active, 'when 
each one is contributing something to the solution of 
the difficulty or to the development of the point, then 
the result belongs to all alike, all alike profit by it; 
each one has not only the result of his own endeavor, 
but he shares also in what the others have contributed. 
The tendency to depreciate cooperation in school tasks 
grows out of distorted forms of cooperation, where, 
for instance, one pupil does all the thinking and 
the others merely sit by and attempt to absorb — a 
procedure which is, of course, of no great educational 
value. 

School Studies as Material for Personal Intercourse. 
— As has been said by one student of social problems : 
"The scientific task to which education should set it- 

241 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

self is that of making the subject-matter of its in- 
struction the material of personal intercourse between 
pupils and instructors and between the children them- 
selves, the substitution of the converse of concrete in- 
dividuals for the pale abstractions of thought." * 
How can the studies lend themselves to such a trans- 
formation? How can they become material for per- 
sonal intercourse? In reply, let us remember that all 
the studies, as they exist in social experience, in the 
world outside the school, are precisely this. They 
were built up through social intercourse, and their 
existence and value for society are dependent upon 
their continuing to play a part in the varied forms of 
social communication and activity. Every one of these 
forms of social experience, when crystallized in a 
study for children, contains abundant material for co- 
operative work. Every study contains sufficient ma- 
terial for any amount of discussion and interchange of 
ideas. 

Geography.— Geography, for example, is not a modi- 
cum of more or less dry information to be religiously 
learned. It extends far beyond the covers of the 
largest book. The fact that some geographical in- 
formation happens to be put in a text-book is only an 
incidental feature of the subject itself. With this 
larger view of the subject, the teacher finds manifold 
opportunities for each pupil to contribute something 
of his own to the various topics taken up by the 
class. The study of rivers, of irrigation, of moun- 
tains, of the commerce of New York, of the cotton 
industry of the South, or of the wheat industry of 

* G. H. Mead, "The Psychology of Social Consciousness 
Implied in Instruction," Science, N. S. Vol. 13, pp. 688-693. 

242 



THE METHOD OF INSTRUCTION 

the North, are so many chances for collective work, 
and, altogether, they are subjects affording abundant 
opportunities for interchange of ideas and for general 
discussion. In recitation, these pupils are not simply 
quizzed on what they individually remember from the 
same book. They rather meet and talk together and 
with the teacher about what they have found out, and 
further meanings are discovered through questions and 
discussions. 

Someone will object that there is a certain sub- 
stratum of geographical fact which each child must 
learn and be tested for individually. We reply by 
the question, is not this mastery by each individual 
of a certain set of facts largely a delusion, even where 
it is most conscientiously enforced by the teacher? 
Does not the information that is actually acquired and 
does not the thoughtful attitude of mind, as far as any 
has been really developed, come through the communi- 
cation and discussion rather than through any isolated 
effort of the individual pupils? 

Personal Intercourse Assures Mastery. — In other 
words, the making of the actual subject- matter of the 
text-book into "material for personal intercourse" be- 
tween members of the class is the very best way to 
insure its mastery by each pupil. What each one gets 
in this "give and take" of conversation and discus- 
sion, one learns much more thoroughly and remem- 
bers longer than that which one acquires through be- 
ing formally questioned by the teacher. His action in 
the class is social participation. What he learns he 
learns in the normal way that all people acquire in- 
formation outside of school. Moreover, he gets valu- 
able experience in social activity, and this is fully as 

243 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

important as any particular set of facts which he may 
learn, if not more so. 

Exaggerated Importance of Facts, — All of us who 
teach tend to place an exaggerated valuation upon 
facts as such. We admit, in theory, that the school 
should teach facts, not because they are good in them- 
selves, but because they are to be used, because, in 
some mysterious way, the pupil should gain "power" 
and mental discipline. The point here raised is that 
these desirable results are not practically realized by 
merely memorizing information and learning lessons, 
nor are they realized by each child's working them 
out for himself alone, no matter how thoughtful he 
may be, no matter how far he advances beyond just 
committing his lessons to memory. The learning 
which brings to the child that which all teachers ad- 
mit he should realty get out of his school studies is 
the learning thai goes on within a vital social medium; 
it is that which gives to him, as he learns, the oppor- 
tunity to use facts as he is supposed to use them 
when he leaves school. 

Social Influences Always Present. — It was stated 
above that, even in the worst school, the social factor 
enters into the learning processes. This is simply be- 
cause none of us can do anything in conjunction with 
others without being affected, at least in some degree, 
by them. But when the positive value of social inter- 
course is not recognized, it is very apt to find expres- 
sion in ways that hinder rather than help learning. 
For instance, it is often thought that the ideal school- 
situation is the one in which the personality of the 
teacher disappears as completely as possible. If the 
pupil is conscious of the teacher, it is only in the arti- 

244 



THE METHOD OF INSTRUCTION 

ficial, unnatural relation expressed by a quizmaster, 
or by one who is watching the pupil for breaches of 
"good order", or to bring his lagging attention back 
to his work. 

But Sometimes Baneful. — There is a social relation, 
an interaction of minds, in the situation described 
above, but it is of a low order. It distracts rather 
than helps in the work in hand. There is no feeling 
of friendly cooperation. The pupil conceives the 
teacher as one set over against himself, with different 
interests from his own. Since the teacher is identi- 
fied in his mind with one trying to make him learn 
his lessons, he forthwith ceases to find his own inter- 
ests in the lessons, but rather in various activities ex- 
ternal to his lessons, and even opposed to them. In- 
stead of devoting himself to his assigned work with 
all his childish zeal, he gets as much of it as he has 
to, and devotes his main energies to the pursuit of 
other and possibly conflicting ends. Even if the pupil 
is diligent in his work and is praised by the teacher, 
that approval does not bear any essential relation to 
the subject-matter itself. It may be only an external 
bribe. It is far different from the real satisfaction 
and the approval that come to one in the best types of 
social cooperation. The satisfaction and joy, for ex- 
ample, that come spontaneously to the boy who plays 
a real and valuable part on the athletic team are far 
more worth while. The approval or the disapproval 
of the captain of the team and of one's fellow mem- 
bers is an organic part of the regular team activity. 

A Concrete Case. — This enlistment of the child's best 
energies in the actual work of the school studies, with 
its attendant character-forming influence and its real 

245 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

satisfaction in accomplishment, is well illustrated in 
the experiment of a history teacher, Miss Lotta A. 
Clark, of the Charlestown, Massachusetts, High 
School. For the past nine years she has taught his- 
tory as a collective undertaking on the part of the 
class. We do not suggest that her method can in 
every detail be imitated by all history teachers. That 
is a matter which can be decided only by study of 
local conditions and by the varying personalities of the 
teachers themselves. We feel sure, however, that 
every teacher can get many practical suggestions from 
Miss Clark's method. It is a concrete illustration of 
how at least one teacher made the subject she was 
teaching "material of personal intercourse" between 
pupils. It is the spirit of such undertakings that is to 
be imitated, and this can be successfully done only by 
a study of many actual experiments in the school- 
room. We cannot do better than quote a part of 
Miss Clark's account of her scheme after it had been 
in operation for five years : * 

A History Teacher's Experiment 

After having taught history in the high school for six 
years, I determined to have the courage of my convic- 
tions for one year, at least, and to give my pupils a fair 
chance to take the responsibility of their work and to do 
it in their own way. Up to this time I had conducted 
my lessons in the usual way, had planned the lesson be- 
forehand, collected what illustrative material I could, 
and in the class had asked the questions, explained the 
difficulties, and carried the burden of the work on my 

*The School Review, 17; 255— "A Good Way to Teach 
History." 

246 



THE METHOD OF INSTRUCTION 

shoulders. The pupils had answered the questions, but 
rarely asked any, and had had no chance to get the real 
benefit of being responsible for the continuity and prog- 
ress of the work, nor to plan, investigate or discuss it 
on their own account. I determined that the class should 
be a social group of young people and should have an 
opportunity to do just those things, i. e., to cooperate — 
to work together — and to give each individual a chance 
to do anything which he particularly wanted to do. 

It seemed impossible at first to get a chance to try 
this group work; the conditions in the high school make 
it difficult. Instead of having the same pupils for five 
hours each day, we have a different set every hour, and 
they are with us but forty-five minutes. Some of these 
classes we see only three times a week, and, as a number 
of them are preparing for college and normal school, 
there is not a moment to be wasted. Furthermore, I did 
not feel warranted in trying any experiment which would 
unsettle the classes and make them harder to control in 
other recitations. 

In spite of all this, however, I determined to give the 
social group work a fair trial. I talked the matter over 
with the classes, showed them why the lessons we had 
been having were unsatisfactory, and asked them how 
they would like to try the experiment of running their 
history lessons themselves. The novelty of the idea 
pleased them, and after considerable informal discussion 
we decided to carry on our relations in the form of busi- 
ness meetings such as any group of people would have 
who had come together to accomplish a piece of work. 
A chairman was appointed from the class and there was 
something of a sensation when I exchanged chairs with 
him. He appointed a committee to nominate candidates 
for president, vice-president, and secretary. These ofii- 

247 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

cers were elected by ballot for one month, and their 
duties were decided upon by the class and written down 
in a simple constitution. We had an amusing- time when 
they tried to decide what they ought to do with me. I 
told them I should do just as little as possible in the 
class, in order that they might have all the time and 
opportunity there was. They finally decided to call me 
"the executive officer/' with power to exercise full au- 
thority if necessity required. 

It was surprising to see the change in the whole at- 
mosphere of the recitations which this order of things 
brought about. The pupils were timid at first and I 
trembled for the result, but after a lesson or two they 
became used to it, and the work went on with far more 
ease and spirit that I had dared hope it would. Here is 
a brief sketch of the new kind of recitation: 

( i ) The president called the class to order and called 
the roll. 

(2) He asked for the secretary's report, which was 
corrected by the class and formally accepted. 

(3) The president asked if there were any unfinished 
business. If so, that was taken up first; if not, 

(4) The lesson of the day was called for. Whoever 
wished to arose, addressed the chair, and began to de- 
scribe the historical events in the lesson. If he made a 
mistake or omitted anything, another pupil who noticed it 
arose, and, when recognized by the president, made the 
corrections he thought necessary. Sometimes these cor- 
rections were not correct, or did not go far enough, and 
several others entered into the discussion. When there 
were several pupils on the floor at once, the one who 
was recognized first by the president had the right-of- 
way and the others had to do the same in turn. That 
prevented disorder. This part of the work proved to be 

248 



THE METHOD OF INSTRUCTION 

of great value. The pupils questioned each other's state- 
ments, and when they could not agree the point was left 
over as unfinished business until the next day. In the 
meantime they consulted authorities to be able to prove 
their points, and they used their reasoning powers to 
good advantage. 

There were all sorts of unexpected, interesting de- 
velopments as the work went on. Whenever difficulties 
arose we solved them together. My opinion was con- 
sidered of no more importance than theirs. When we 
did not agree I urged them to try their way, so that they 
might have confidence in their own judgment if they 
succeeded, or see its weakness if they failed. Sometimes 
they elected officers who were not efficient and who 
bungled matters uncomfortably. The pupils suffered im- 
mediately and got some pointed lessons in civil govern- 
ment at first hand. 

To tell all this sounds as if it must have taken a great 
deal of time. As a matter of fact, we soon found that 
we had time to spare. The time which previously had 
been taken up by the teacher's questions was all saved, 
and the pupils could easily recite in half an hour what 
it had taken them an hour to prepare. The reports of 
the secretary helped considerably with the review work, 
and as the class grew more critical of both the history 
and the English of these reports the secretaries grew 
more careful, and very often we had reports read with 
which no fault could be found. The roll-call and report 
were sometimes finished in five minutes, the lesson of the 
day in thirty more, and we found ourselves with ten 
minutes to spare. 

There were various suggestions as to what we had bet- 
ter do with the extra time. One was that they take 
longer lessons, and this led us into the habit of letting 
17 249 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

them assign their own lessons, and they almost always 
took longer ones than I had been in the habit of assign- 
ing them. Another suggestion was that the scholars col- 
lect pictures and show them to the class during spare 
minutes. One boy said he didn't have much luck find- 
ing pictures, but he would like to read things in other 
books and tell them to the class. A girl asked if she 
might draw some pictures from a book in the library, 
and another boy asked me to get permission for him to 
take photographs at the Art Museum of the casts that 
related to our work. We did all these things and many 
more, and these suggestions led to the richest develop- 
ment of all in the work of that year. They formed them- 
selves into little volunteer clubs, met at recess and after 
school, and considered what they could do to contribute 
things of interest to the lessons. There were drawing 
clubs, camera clubs, and the club that brought in pic- 
tures and newspaper clippings and gave interesting ac- 
counts which they had read called themselves the "Side- 
lights Club." We used the last half of the last lesson 
each week for the reports of these clubs. They all did 
well for beginners, but the work of the drawing clubs 
was truly remarkable. Never before have I had such 
beautiful illustrative material. A point worth noting is 
that some of the finest drawings were made by the poor- 
est talkers. 

This teacher further says: 

The discipline of these three classes was the easiest I 
had ever had, and it became almost unnecessary as the 
years went on. . . . And what was the teacher's part 
in this new order of things? She was learning the truth 
of the statement that "no teacher is equal to the dynamic 

250 



THE METHOD OF INSTRUCTION 

force of the class before her." Her time and energy 
were taxed to the utmost to utilize all that the pupils 
produced, to help to get materials for them, to find and 
suggest books to be consulted, and to give them credit 
for the work done. 

Even the teacher who feels himself bound by the 
most rigid type of traditional school system will find 
ways to introduce into his classes something of the 
social opportunity afforded in these history classes, 
provided, of course, he feels it is really worth while. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE CHARACTER-FORMING INFLUENCE OF 
GROUP-WORK 

Broader Applications of Socialization. — We have 
thus far considered the social phases of ordinary class 
work and have pointed out ways in which these 
phases may well be emphasized and extended. The 
teaching and learning within the school, however, 
need not be confined to the study and recitation of 
lessons. There are many other ways by which chil- 
dren may learn and be taught, aside from these tra- 
ditional methods. These other ways become more 
apparent when we study the school as a social group. 
The most serious difficulty attendant upon the sociali- 
zation of ordinary class work is that it consists of 
more or less "set lessons" and dictated exercises. It 
requires much ingenuity and careful planning on the 
part of the teacher to secure the best form of social 
reaction under such circumstances. It can be done, 
however, as the history teacher quoted in the last 
chapter has proved. 

Characteristics of Collective Effort. — A study of vari- 
ous types of group- work reveals certain characteris- 
tics which suggest the possibility of further develop- 
ments within the school. In the best examples of 
cooperative activity in ordinary life we see people plan- 
ning and working together at certain common tasks or 

252 



INFLUENCE OF GROUP-WORK 

problems which all feel to be vital. They are drawn 
together voluntarily because each is interested, even 
though in a different way, in the task in hand. A 
business enterprise of any sort is a good illustration. 
A company of people may unite their efforts for the 
purpose of manufacturing and marketing an article 
of some sort. Some of them contribute the money; 
others, inventive skill, and perhaps, as in the old days, 
labor itself; others have charge of the practical man- 
agement of the concern. Real life is full of just such 
voluntary undertakings of varying magnitudes. Their 
success depends upon individual loyalty, upon skill- 
ful planning, and upon concentration of effort under 
proper leadership. Responsibilities of various sorts 
rest upon each member of the group. 

Types of Collective Effort. — Now a school which 
prepares children for real social efficiency must pro- 
vide much opportunity within its walls for boys and 
girls to have experience in just this sort of thing. As 
was pointed out in a previous chapter, the athletic, lit- 
erary, and social clubs which tend to spring up in 
every high school give the students much valuable 
experience in planning and carrying out projects of 
their own. But these should not be the only oppor- 
tunities. In the regular school program there should 
be more chances for children to select problems of 
their own and to have the responsibility of carrying 
them out. Such chances would give them a train- 
ing in social cooperation and would develop in them 
a sense of personal responsibility and initiative, which 
the best assigned class work can never accomplish. 

Professor Scott's Self-organized Groups. — It was with 
some such need in mind that Professor Colin A. Scott 

253 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

tried in various places and with significant results the 
experiment of "self -organized group work." * The 
children in two third-grade rooms, for example, 
were told by their teachers that if there was anything 
any of them wanted to do, either singly or in groups, 
they might arrange to do it, and they would be given 
a certain amount of time for it during school hours. 
They were told, however, that they must plan before- 
hand just how they were going to do it and determine 
how much time they would need to finish it. The 
teachers reserved the right to reject any plan which 
they did not regard as feasible or worth while. Un- 
der these conditions at first only a few groups of 
children organized, but, as they more generally under- 
stood what the teachers meant, and saw the pleasure 
the first groups were having, almost all the children 
availed themselves of the opportunity. 

First, three boys of eight or nine wanted to print, 
and, after satisfying their teacher that they could ac- 
tually carry out their plan, they were given a half 
hour on three mornings in the week to work in the 
back of the room. One of the conditions was that 
they should work quietly so as not to disturb the rest 
of the class which was employed at the seats. Other 
groups were organized to cook, engage in photogra- 
phy, to give plays, to typewrite, etc. As time went on, 
other grades were given similar opportunities and 
the experiment was even tried with young women in 
a normal school. For interesting details as to the 
activities of these various voluntary organizations the 
reader should consult the accounts in Scott's book, 
Social Education. We shall attempt here to indicate 

* Vide his Social Education, Boston, 1908. 

254 



INFLUENCE OF GROUP-WORK 

only some of the social values which such work 
brought to the children. Of course, the chance af- 
forded the children to exercise their own initiative, 
both in selecting things to do and in the requirement 
that they make definite plans, was of the greatest 
importance as a bit of training for real life. 

Obstacles Foster Self-dependence. — All sorts of prob- 
lems, unexpected to the children, but just such as 
occur in real life, appeared in these little enterprises. 
For example, too large and unwieldy a group was 
sometimes formed, and, when they were confronted 
with the necessity of quitting unless they actually car- 
ried out their scheme, they arranged among them- 
selves to reduce their number. Furthermore, the suc- 
cess or failure of the work did not depend directly 
on the teachers. When once a plan was approved the 
children were thrown on their own responsibility in 
carrying it out, the teachers declining to interfere. 
If some member of a group did not work harmoni- 
ously with the others, the group itself had to deal 
with him. Sometimes such a member was expelled, 
sometimes he was brought very effectively into line, 
much more so than if the teacher had used her author- 
ity to coerce. Difficulties in the way of getting ma- 
terials to use as wanted had to be met by the children 
themselves, so also in the proper distribution of indi- 
vidual responsibility. All of these experiences were 
so many practical and lasting lessons in real social life. 

Ordinary School Work Does Not Cultivate Responsi- 
bility. — In the cultivation of the sense of individual 
responsibility much regular school work falls sadly 
short because the teacher feels he must step in, at 
the first sign of faltering, with suggestions. Or if 

255 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

the task seems doomed to failure, after the pupils 
"have tried long enough", he feels under obligation to 
bring it to a successful issue by taking hold himself. 
This may be proper sometimes, but it should not be 
the invariable rule. A boy in the manual training 
room of a certain well-known school was once asked 
by a visitor what he was making. He replied blithely : 
"I don't know, but the teacher does." Such a pupil 
lacked the sense of complete responsibility for his un- 
dertaking that he should have had. 

This lack of responsibility develops into an abnor- 
mal dependence upon the instructor. Too often the 
pupils get the idea that it is the teacher's business to 
interest them and to get them through their work if 
he can. It is not for them to exert themselves any 
more than they have to. While such responsibility 
does rest on the teachers of the elementary grades, 
the effort should more and more be made, as the 
higher grades and the high school are reached, to 
cultivate a different attitude in pupils. In the high 
school, especially, they should feel that it is as much 
their duty as the teachers' to take an interest in their 
work and try to make it successful. The history 
teacher quoted in the last chapter apparently suc- 
ceeded admirably in developing such a sense, and its 
effect upon the efficiency of the class work was 
notable. 

Value of Failure. — Turning again to Scott's experi- 
ments, we may say that the experience of failure un- 
der certain conditions is as valuable as success. It 
should lead the children to look over what they have 
done to determine the causes of failure and how they 
might have remedied them. These things they will 

256 



INFLUENCE OF GROUP-WORK 

never realize acutely if they receive help from the 
teacher as soon as it is apparent that their own efforts 
do not lead to success. When they pass out into the 
so-called "real world" they are likely many times to 
fail in their undertakings. They must, however, meet 
such experiences with brave hearts, and know how to 
go ahead profiting by their earlier mistakes. Surely 
any aid the school can give them in learning how to 
meet defeat and profit by it is worth while. To 
quote from Scott: "It is the democratic responsi- 
bility to one's own ideals and to others on the same 
social level, and not responsibility to the teacher, which 
this phase of work aims to cultivate." 

Cooperation Develops Character, — Individual charac- 
ter building through social cooperation in these self- 
organized groups is marked and effective. In the 
first place, it is a good thing for children to have the 
experience of doing something worth while which 
they have planned themselves. The work a child does 
with enthusiasm and with a sense of self-direction is 
worth ten-fold more than the same amount of directed 
work done without zeal. Not all of school training 
can be self -directed, but every school program should 
be planned so as to give some opportunity for it. The 
reason why such outside activities as athletics, liter- 
ary and social clubs are followed so enthusiastically 
by high school students, often to the detriment of their 
school work, is that they find here outlets for their 
craving for cooperation with their peers and for self- 
direction. 

The amount of information acquired by the mem- 
bers of the groups referred to above was in itself suf- 
ficient to justify the use of a part of the school hours 

257 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

in this way. Moreover, the children learned to look 
at knowledge from a more practical point of view; 
they learned by the very best of stimuli to think and 
plan clearly, mainly in order to convince and guide 
one another in their common undertakings. Individ- 
ual children, who, if left to work alone, were vacillat- 
ing, learned the value of steadfastness of purpose and 
of continued effort. The approval or disapproval of 
one's peers in every individual act was a strong and 
lasting inducement to faithful work. 

School Participation in Results of Group-work. — It 
should be noted also that many of the things accom- 
plished by these groups were of interest and benefit 
to other groups and to the school as a whole, as when 
the boys printed menus or recipes for the girls, or 
when a dramatic group gave a play for which the 
entire room would become the appreciative spectators. 

Influence Upon Teachers. — The experiments with 
voluntary groups in the school have a practical inter- 
est for all teachers, whether they are able to try any- 
thing of a precisely similar nature or not. In the first 
place, they may enlarge one's vision as to the method 
of learning and teaching. We all have needlessly con- 
stricted views of these matters. We think, when a 
child is studying, he must be buried in a book or 
busied with a pencil. The function of teaching we 
confine largely to hearing pupils recite lessons which 
they have learned from books. We may strive to have 
more or less supplementary material, but this is con- 
ceived only as illustrating the book lesson. That is 
what we hold the pupils responsible for finally. Of 
course, there need be no question but that the study 
and recitation of assigned lessons is an important 

258 



INFLUENCE OF GROUP-WORK 

phase of school activity. A certain type of continuous 
effort is thus cultivated, systematic habits of work 
may thus be formed, a definite body of information, 
useful for later work, may be gradually acquired in 
this way. But such exercises as these, however de- 
sirable they may be, should not occupy all the chil- 
dren's time. As has been pointed out, this procedure 
is apt to leave them more or less dependent upon the 
teacher. It is fully as necessary for them to learn to 
plan and carry on simple tasks for themselves. 

A Common Complaint. — The evil of having done 
nothing but assigned work is especially evident in 
those children who reach the upper grades of the 
high school and the college and the trade or technical 
schools. It is a common complaint of teachers in 
these schools that the young people lack initiative in 
their regular work. They want to be told what to 
do and how to do it. They show a deplorable lack of 
power to deal with simple problems for themselves. 
They still want to be "told" what to do firstly and sec- 
ondly and thirdly. If some explicit direction of their 
efforts is not immediately forthcoming they wait list- 
lessly and even vacantly, instead of trying to do some- 
thing. A school training, no matter how rigid or 
exacting, that leaves pupils with this attitude toward 
their school tasks certainly does not contribute very 
much to social efficiency. They may gain this power 
for self-directed effort in other ways, but the conten- 
tion here is that the regular school work itself should 
lead more definitely toward this goal. 

Opportunity of the "Average School." — Even the or- 
dinary school, pressed to the utmost, as it imagines, 
to get through a set course of study, could afford to 

. 259 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

reconstruct its program to some extent along these 
lines, especially when it is realized that such self- 
directed work may do much to enlarge the children's 
field of knowledge, as well as develop their sense of 
personal responsibility and powers of social coopera- 
tion. For one thing, the teacher can make larger and 
more systematic use of the general knowledge and 
outside interests of various sorts. All children come 
to school with scattering experience and abilities of 
various sorts. They do not ordinarily find much use 
for it within the school. A teacher who "stuck" to 
the course of study was once asked regarding a bright 
little boy, who knew a great many things she had 
never heard of, if she noticed what a wide range of 
information he had, or if he ever used it in his recita- 
tions. She replied that she had not noticed it. There 
was apparently no place in her room for any outside 
experiences. She saw no organic relationship between 
everyday life and school tasks. As a matter of fact, 
there should have been abundant opportunity for this 
larger out-of-school self to function within the school. 
A teacher can make large drafts upon this self. 
Pupils should be constantly expected to make indi- 
vidual contributions, if not in every study, at least 
in some of them. Best of all, they should be given 
chances for cooperation in bringing to the class ma- 
terial for class discussion. 

There seems to be no good reason why groups of 
pupils may not, if they are encouraged to do so, think 
of things they would like collectively to undertake, to 
find out more about, or things they would like to do 
together, which grow directly out of their regular 
studies. Certainly these studies, if they are worth 

260 



INFLUENCE OF GROUP-WORK 

anything at all, should be capable of suggesting all 
sorts of accessory activities of interest to boys and 
girls. At first the teacher will have to take more or 
less of the responsibility of suggesting these possi- 
bilities. But more and more the pupils will think of 
them, especially as they experience the joy of doing 
things themselves. 

Proposed Scheme Workable. — Our constructive pro- 
gram is not a revolutionary one. It is simply that all 
the factors in study and recitation be given due 
weight. Individual pupils who for various reasons 
have fallen behind must be given the specific help that 
will do them the most good. Individual instruction 
will always be needed. But there must also, in the 
very nature of the case, be class or group work. We 
suggest that this be appreciated at its full value. The 
teacher, even though he thinks otherwise, is not deal- 
ing with individuals in his classes. All sorts of in- 
fluences play from one pupil to another. It is normal 
and right that they should, and these influences con- 
stitute important assets for the skilled teacher. If his 
aim is to develop the individual pupils to the fullest 
extent, he can do it best not by neglecting social 
forces, but by using them. If his aim is the higher 
one of training socially efficient men and women, he 
can still less afford to neglect the opportunities await- 
ing him, on every side, of utilizing social forces. 



CHAPTER XVI 
THE SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTER 

Larger Conceptions of Public Education. — In each 
chapter, thus far, we have constantly had in mind edu- 
cational processes as they are ordinarily understood, 
namely, those which are concerned with the training 
and instruction of boys and girls in school. Educa- 
tion is, of course, a much broader affair than this, and 
one of the striking characteristics of our time is the 
rapid growth in the public mind of larger ideas of 
what the schools may legitimately undertake. Almost 
every movement which has to do with the improve- 
ment of human conditions is, in one way or another, 
educational. In our study of social meanings we can- 
not afford to omit some consideration of these new 
ways in which the. schools are becoming of service 
to society. 

Social Center Movement. — The current "social center 
movement" may be taken as typical of the many broad 
educational activities which are more or less definitely 
associated with the public schools. Like many other 
"movements", it is not entirely new. It represents 
rather an attempt to conserve and develop certain 
values which already exist and whose worth has been 
established. We have referred in other chapters to 
the desirability of the school's being a center of in- 
fluence in the community. This was brought out in 

262 



THE SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTER 

the discussion of the rural school and of the parent- 
teacher associations. But the point of emphasis in 
both these cases was upon the benefit to the school 
itself of such sympathetic cooperation. It was seen 
that educational agencies can accomplish better results 
with the children if they work, not in isolation from 
the community, but in intimate association with it. 

But whenever the school attempts to cooperate with 
external social forces it is sure to discover many new 
lines of service open to it which extend beyond its 
work with the children. It discovers that educational 
needs are not confined to the immature members of 
society, but that they extend to every age and condi- 
tion of adult life. Thus, we may say, the attempts 
of the school to enlist the active interests of the com- 
munity in behalf of its boys and girls have given a 
vision of still more extended services in behalf of the 
community. The result, everywhere, has been a great 
enlargement in the conception of the scope and func- 
tion of public education. 

According to this "larger view", the influence of 
the school should extend out in many directions into 
the surrounding community. It should radiate a 
wholesome social life, the scope of its efforts should 
be broadened until old as well as young may have 
their intellectual life quickened and refreshed. In- 
deed, an educational scheme animated by the ideal 
of social efficiency cannot afford to neglect these 
larger social services. If it should confine its efforts 
to the children it would soon discover that much of 
its best work is dissipated and lost through the un- 
leavened community life into which these children 
are thrust when they leave school. Moreover, for its 

263 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

own sake, the community must needs be infused with 
better social ideals. Everywhere there are imperfec- 
tions of adjustment that may be relieved by the schools 
thus reaching out and showing people how to do what 
they usually feel the need of but which they are 
often unable to realize because of lack of suitable 
leadership. 

Its Association with Schools. — Perhaps the social cen- 
ter movement, in the beginning, tended to be asso- 
ciated with the school because the school plant itself 
is public property and there seemed no good "reason 
why the public should not freely use it for all pur- 
poses connected with its own betterment. This feel- 
ing was further strengthened by the tradition, still 
persisting, of the old-time school as a community cen- 
ter. As expressing the new sentiment regarding the 
larger use of the school plant, the National Educa- 
tion Association, in 191 1, passed a resolution favor- 
ing the use of school houses and grounds outside the 
regular school hours, as recreation centers for parents 
as well as children, and their development as "radiat- 
ing centers of social and cultural activity in the neigh- 
borhood, in a spirit of civic unity and cooperation". 
A social service body in New York says : "The com- 
munity should regard the school building as its prop- 
erty, to be turned to every possible community use." 
The United States Bureau of Education is also cham- 
pioning the idea by "sending out bulletins describing 
the progress of social and recreation center work 
throughout the country".* 

Variety of Types. — The social center idea has de- 

* Perry, C. A., "Survey of the Social-Center Movement," 
Elementary School Teacher, Nov., 1912. 

264 



THE SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTER 

veloped in different parts of the country in different 
ways; sometimes under the auspices of school author- 
ities and sometimes through outside agencies. In 
some localities it has been more largely recreational 
and social in its intent, in others the civic feature has 
been emphasized, the school houses being used, not 
only for voting, but also as places where clubs may 
meet for the discussion of various public and political 
questions. 

The Underlying Idea. — Mr. Edward J. Ward, who, 
through the University of Wisconsin, is now associ- 
ated with the development of social centers in that 
state, did his pioneer work in the city of Rochester, 
New York. The central idea of the work, as he con- 
ceived it, may well be given in his own words : 

The social center was not to take the place of any 
existing institution ; it was not to be a charitable medium 
for the service particularly of the poor ; it was not to be 
a new kind of evening school ; it was not to take the 
place of any church or other institution of moral uplift; 
it was not to serve simply as an "improvement associa- 
tion" by which the people in one community should seek 
only the welfare of their district; it was not to be a 
"civic reform" organization, pledged to some change in 
city or state or national administration; it was just to 
be the restoration to its true place in social life of that 
most American of all institutions, the public school cen- 
ter, in order that through this extended use of the school 
building might be developed, in the midst of our com- 
plex life, the community interest, the neighborly spirit, 
the democracy that we knew before we came to the city.* 

* Perry, C. A., Wider Use of the School Plant, pp. 272-3. 
18 265 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

Neighborliness Needed. — In the last words of this 
quotation we have stated the real underlying pur- 
pose of the movement, namely, to bring people to- 
gether in a friendly way and promote good fellow- 
ship through social intercourse, wholesome recreation, 
and entertainment, and an appeal to intellectual inter- 
ests. There is, indeed, probably no more vital present- 
day need, whether in country, town, or city, than for 
people to assemble occasionally in a spirit of old- 
fashioned neighborliness. There are various reasons 
why this is so. The interests of life are becoming so 
diverse, old social standards and moral restraints are 
breaking down, people are moving about more gen- 
erally, large numbers of alien people are constantly 
coming into our midst. All of these conditions ren- 
der it difficult for men and women to continue to 
know each other in a helpful way. And yet such 
neighborly acquaintance is vitally essential, both to 
our individual and collective welfare. We naturally 
crave companionship and sociability. Without it dis- 
trust and suspicion develop. We lose the feeling that 
others are like ourselves, or, at least, not so very 
different from ourselves. Such a living appreciation 
of our common humanity, underneath diversity of oc- 
cupation, religion, and social station, is needful for 
almost every phase of community life. 

The members of every neighborhood, ward, or city 
have many common interests at stake which can be 
realized best through just such friendly confidence and 
mutual understanding. There is everywhere the need, 
for instance, of a purer civic life, of better enforce- 
ment of law, of improved recreational facilities for 
young and old, of beautifying the community or city, 

266 



THE SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTER 

of keeping the schools up to modern standards, of 
wise poor relief and, withal, there are the manifold 
problems of public health. These needs can always 
be dealt with most effectively where people have cul- 
tivated the art of general neighborliness. Many of 
the most knotty social problems would be solved if 
men and women would only get together and learn 
to know each other. This is, in fact, the first condi- 
tion of real cooperation in all those things which con- 
cern their collective life. 

People are not generally bad or lacking in public 
spirit, but when they live apart they inevitably acquire 
distorted ideas of one another and fail to appreciate 
other points of view than their own. Even the best 
men and women in a community can seldom see all 
sides of important questions. Friendly discussion and 
exchange of ideas are constantly needed as correc- 
tives. Real community progress depends on collective 
effort. It may not thus be as rapid as a few clear- 
headed individuals may desire, but it is bound to be 
more permanent. Even the most ardent social re- 
former has need to exchange his ideas with his less 
alert brothers, not merely for their sake, but for his 
own. To all of these larger needs of society the 
"social center" has proved itself able to minister in 
very direct and efficient ways. 

Spread of This Idea. — Country and village communi- 
ties, as well as cities, are awakening to a sense of the 
value of "getting together" for sociability, recreation, 
and instruction. So much, however, has been written 
about the work in the cities that one may get the idea 
that it is essentially an urban movement, or at least, 
one may fail to see how it can be developed in smaller 

267 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

communities. For this reason, therefore, we shall con- 
clude our general statement of the need and function of 
the "social center" by giving an account of the actual 
progress of the work in a small country town. This 
account should prove of practical value in many ways. 
It shows among other things how one community 
"started". Often all that is needed to get such work 
under way is a clear idea of how to begin. It shows 
also what difficulties are apt to be encountered in a 
village and how these difficulties may be met. It 
shows what different phases of social service may be 
undertaken in such a community. It is significant 
also in that, while it originated to some extent inde- 
pendently of the public school, it has tended to come 
into closer and closer relations to the school, until it 
now promises to be an accepted phase of public edu- 
cation in that town. 



THE WEST BRANCH SOCIABILITY ASSO- 
CIATION * 

West Branch, Iowa The average traveling sales- 
man who "makes" West Branch, Iowa, will be likely 
to tell you that it is "a good little town". Its inhab- 
itants, numbering six hundred fifty, are, in general, 
fairly well-to-do, and the surrounding farming coun- 
try is exceedingly productive and well settled. The 
train service to nearby points, for example, to Cedar 
Rapids, Iowa City, and West Liberty, is very good. 

* This account was especially prepared for this book by 
Walter R. Miles, M. A., a graduate student in the State 
University of Iowa. 

268 






THE SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTER 

Material and Social Conditions. — The town is well 
equipped materially, having electric lighting, water and 
ice plants; an abundance of telephones, and paved 
walks, two flourishing banks, a town library, five 
churches, four of which undertake to support pastors, 
and a commodious pressed-brick school building. It 
has always enjoyed the reputation of being a very 
moral community. "No saloons" has been its watch- 
word. Let us trust that its reputation is not far from 
the reality. But what shall we say of the social side 
of the community? Here is the rub with West Branch 
as with the great majority of country towns. They 
would, most of them, be delightful places in which to 
live if the social conditions were different. As it is, 
the young people, many times the older folk, feel that 
they want to go away for their entertainment and good 
times, and many hope to move away as soon as possi- 
ble. Move whither ? "Oh, to the Rapids, or the City, 
or any place where there is something going on." Es- 
pecially is this feeling present among many of the 
young men. 

Social Life Undemocratic. — Of course there is 
some social life in West Branch. There are several 
clubs of various degrees of exclusiveness, a few 
lodges, and, as stated, the five churches. Each of 
these groups of people forms in a sense a social 
center. However, they are centers of a very limited, 
and — may I say it? — selfish nature, no one of which 
has much likeness in basis or program to what a com- 
munity social center should be. The Sunday-school 
classes and young people's societies theoretically are 
not exclusive, but, practically, they work out much as 
the other organizations. All of them have their so- 

269 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 



cials and parties, which afford entertainment for per- 
haps a good many when taken together, but at what 
duplication of effort! The high school commence- 
ment and lecture course numbers, and perhaps the 
farmers' institute, are the only affairs that come near 
to touching the interest of the whole population. No 
one of the clubs, lodges, or churches is strong enough 
in numbers or in popular sympathy and good-will to 
undertake and carry out any plan having to do with 
the town as a whole. In fact, they all seem to have 
different ideals, and are usually conducted on the 
same competitive basis as are the corner grocery 
stores. Not one of the organizations furnishes even 
to a limited group of young men anything in the 
nature of a lounging-room, not to mention a game- 
room or gymnasium. There are no places for leisure 
time but the pool hall, restaurants, and tobacco stores. 
Planning a Social Center. — It was with a sense of 
such conditions, which have, perhaps, been sufficiently 
described to be recognized by all, that a group of us 
met at the school house about May i, 191 1. The 
group was not large — just seven, as I remember, the 
principal of the school, with two high school teachers, 
two pastors, and two ladies, one the wife of a pastor, 
the other the president of a local woman's club. There 
was a long discussion of the question as to what ought 
to be done and what could be done. Finally those 
present agreed to the formation "of an association 
for the purpose of providing good wholesome enter- 
tainment for the people of the town and community, 
and for doing general center work". The following 
simple constitution was drawn up and adopted and 
officers were elected. 

270 



. 



THE SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTER 

Constitution 
Article I 

This organization shall be called the "West Branch 
Sociability Association". 

Article II 

The purpose of this Association shall be to pro- 
vide wholesome entertainment, promote good fellow- 
ship, and encourage civic improvement. 

Article III 

Any individual who feels himself in sympathy with 
the purpose of this Association is eligible to member- 
ship, and may become a member by signing the con- 
stitution. 

Article IV 

Section i. The officers shall consist of a presi- 
dent, two vice-presidents, a secretary, and a treasurer. 

Section 2. The president shall appoint such com- 
mittees as shall from time to time be considered need- 
ful. 

Article V 

Business meetings of this Association shall be held 
the third Monday night of each month, at the home 
of the president, unless otherwise designated. Any 
five members of the Association shall constitute a 
quorum for the transaction of business at a regular 



or called meeting. 



271 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

Article VI 

This constitution may be changed at any regular 
meeting of the Association by a two-thirds vote of 
members present, provided notice has been given in 
writing at the previous regular meeting. 

By-Laws 

Article I 

The time and nature of each entertainment or so- 
cial occasion shall be determined at some regular busi- 
ness meeting of the Association. 

Article II 

Officers shall be elected annually at a regular busi- 
ness meeting. 

Article III 

There shall be an executive committee which shall 
have general oversight of the work of the Associa- 
tion subject to the Association's direction. This com- 
mittee shall consist of the officers together with any 
others whom the Association may see fit to appoint. 

Activity of the Association. — The activity of the 
West Branch Sociability Association began with ef- 
forts to get the townspeople together. One of the 
very first things was an out-of-doors community sup- 
per. This was held from six to seven o'clock, on the 
school grounds, by permission of the School Board. 
The fare was served on the cafataria plan. The roast- 

272 



THE SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTER 

ing of "wienerwursts" was a special feature. Most 
of the business men and many others came out, with 
their families, and found the occasion enjoyable, 
and they said : "Why have we not done this before?" 

It became an unwritten rule with the Association to 
have something in the nature of a social entertain- 
ment each month, unless there were other provisions, 
such as lecture numbers, etc. One month we had 
what we called a "Dicker Social". Each person 
brought some article which he would trade. This 
was used as a method of mixing people. The effort 
surpassed all our hopes. People traded with the 
excitement of a stock exchange. Afterwards they 
were divided into groups of fifteen to twenty- 
five for parlor games. Simple refreshments were 
served. Another month there was an "Indoor Carni- 
val". The business men and their clerks came dressed 
to represent their wares and gave us a parade. This 
was followed by games and a short home-talent pro- 
gram. At another time a "Hobby Social", each one 
riding his hobby, afforded lots of amusement. A 
series of shadow pictures, representing different well- 
known individuals at their hobbies, was especially 
appreciated. 

These socials have nearly all been held in the 
"Opera House", as it was not at first possible to se- 
cure the school building. Most school boards are con- 
servative when it comes to "wider uses" of the school 
property. As the "Opera House" costs seven dollars 
per night, and the Association is not endowed, it has 
been necessary to charge a small admittance fee, 
usually ten cents. The refreshments are not donated, 
but are purchased from dealers and sold nearly at 

273 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

cost. From the first the Association's policy has been 
not to seek to make money, nor yet to exist on charity. 
The attendance at the social occasions, varying from 
one hundred twenty-five to two hundred, while not 
as large as might be hoped, is still much larger and 
more representative than that drawn by any other 
organization. They have grown in popularity from 
the first. 

Engineering a "Sane Fourth."- — Another matter 
which came up for consideration soon after the or- 
ganization was "what shall be done about Fourth of 
July?" This is always a hard problem for the small 
town. The business men, who are the backbone of 
the town, dislike to see people go away for entertain- 
ment, for they are likely to get the habit of going 
away for trading purposes also. Therefore, the West 
Branch business men said they would furnish some 
good fireworks for the evening and prizes for the 
contests, if the Association would arrange a program 
and manage the details. The Association took charge 
of the Fourth and saw it through. All went well, 
from the automobile parade in the forenoon to the 
last big skyrocket of the evening; people stayed at 
home and were pleased. The celebration was held 
on the school grounds. It was not quite as sane as 
was desired, but tended in that direction. About fifty 
dollars were cleared at the Association's stand. 

Sponsors for a Chautauqua. — No sooner had July 4, 
191 1, passed successfully than "the advance man" for 
a circuit chautauqua appeared in the town. To whom 
should he talk in West Branch with better chances of 
a fair hearing than to the Association? That busi- 
ness meeting was well attended. Many thought it 

274 



THE SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTER 

would be foolhardy to undertake a Chautauqua when 
it was hard work to make a lecture course pay. Fur- 
thermore the Chautauquas of nearby and larger towns 
were frequently quite well attended by our people. 
The agent wanted a guarantee of three hundred dol- 
lars. We came to terms on a guarantee of two hun- 
dred ; the next one hundred to go to the company and 
forty per cent, of proceeds above to be given in to 
our local treasury. Twenty signers put their names 
on the guarantee. The Chautauqua was held and was 
financially successful, the Association's part being 
fifty dollars, which was set aside as a Chautauqua 
Fund. The program numbers furnished by this com- 
pany, however, all had such a radical political bias 
that the community was not well pleased. The Asso- 
ciation did not contract for a second year, although 
the company took things into its own hands and tried 
to force the matter. 

It may be well to continue the description of this 
"department" of work, as it has come to be called. 
People were at least pleased with the idea of holding 
a local Chautauqua. The Sociability Association ap- 
pointed a committee to consider "the matter of or- 
ganizing a Chautauqua Association of townspeople". 
Our committee reported August 20, "the wish of the 
people is for the Sociability Association to have 
charge of such features". The Chautauqua Depart- 
ment was then formally created. We shall not dwell 
long on the details leading up to the next Chautauqua. 
Seventy people signed a paper guaranteeing individu- 
ally to the extent of ten dollars each. We bought 
some "talent" from a popular bureau, which treated us 
very courteously, and we booked some directly. Our 

275 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

Chautauqua was thus independent of all circuits. The 
business men were glad to have provision made again 
for July 4th. They got together and subscribed 
$234.50 for the purpose of securing a fine "Regi- 
mental Band" for the Fourth. This, with ex-Governor 
Frank Hanly, of Indiana, and two baseball games, 
made another red-letter day for the town. I may 
add, parenthetically, that we had no fireworks. The 
day was a little saner than the previous year. Good 
weather and the appearance of all the "talent" as 
scheduled were features which, no doubt, added much 
to our success. 

Managing the Lecture Course. — The lecture course 
season of 1911-12 had been managed by a group of 
business men and resulted in a sixty-dollar deficit. 
This year the lecture course would have been aban- 
doned had not the Sociability Association taken it in 
charge. While the season tickets were being sold the 
question would be frequently asked: "Who is going 
to be the goat this year?" The course is now two- 
fifths past, and it begins to look as if there would be 
no goat, thanks to the spirit of the community. 

Our Association found another field in the town's 
lack of musical instruction. Music was not taught in 
the schools. Three of the churches had choirs of the 
average sort. No one organization could afford to 
pay an instructor, and, as for some local amateur 
taking upon himself the place of musical director, that 
would be worse than "love's labor lost", for a prophet, 
especially in a small town, is apt to be without honor. 
This scheme had been tried, in fact, several times, 
with the usual result of breaking up or dividing the 
choirs. There seemed to be nothing to do with such 

276 



THE SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTER 

a situation but just to sing, letting each one hobble 
along as best he could. The Sociability Association 
appointed a representative music committee which ar- 
ranged with a competent man from a nearby city 
for a series of twelve weekly lessons during the win- 
ter. These lessons were followed by a successful 
public recital in the "Opera House". 

A Community Sociability Hall. — One other matter, 
considered by the Association, may be mentioned. We 
felt the need of a building (Sociability Hall) after 
the general type of a Y. M. C. A. building. There 
was a good lot available, and we received an option 
on it. One of our members, a young architect taking 
a correspondence course, was delighted to have a con- 
crete problem. We talked and planned the matter, 
and there was considerable enthusiasm, but we en- 
countered the snag of sectarianism. One of the 
churches was planning to build and its members 
would have nothing to do with such a project, for, as 
it proved later, they had decided on the same lot for 
their church. Of course the Sociability Association 
had to stand aside, and, at least for the time, give up 
its own plan. Perhaps we were developing too fast. 
There is danger along that line. 

What Has Been Accomplished? — It might be hard 
for a stranger coming into this village to put his 
finger on the things actually accomplished by this 
simple little Association. But one who lives here can 
feel the results, for they are mostly of that nature. 
There have come about a feeling of cooperation and 
union, and a sense of town responsibility and pride, 
which is surprising to many. During September, of 
19 12, the Methodists, Presbyterians, and Friends held 

277 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

a Union Revival Meeting in a large tent. They all 
got on so remarkably well, for a small town, 
that, near the close, folks began to say: "Why 
not continue to meet together? After all we have 
so much in common it's a shame to divide our 
forces." There's inspiration in a choir of seventy- 
five voices and in a Sunday school attended by 
four hundred. "Could we not at least all have 
one building and together secure a leader of initiative 
and power? The Head Worker will surely be dis- 
pleased with so much waste and duplication." It 
seemed that something was about to happen for the 
sake of stumbling humanity. And who knows but 
that something would have happened, had not that 
particular pastor with a few of his flock set their 
hearts on building a new church? And yet the com- 
munity has gained a larger sense of its unity. 

Future Prospects. — Our hope for the future, there- 
fore, turns to the public school as the most available 
and practical social center. Recently a Parent-teacher 
Association was organized, as the Sociability Asso- 
ciation could not well attend to that particular field. 
Our aims are slightly different, and the only connec- 
tion that exists between the Associations is that the 
president of each is a member of the executive com- 
mittee of the other. One month ago the Sociability 
Association made a proposition to the School Board 
that we should be permitted to put in electric lights 
at the school house if they would allow us to use it 
for public entertainments and social occasions. The 
Board accepted the proposition. The growth of senti- 
ment regarding the extension in the use of our school 
property would be, of itself, an interesting story. 

278 



THE SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTER 

The doors are just now opening, and we feel our- 
selves only getting started in the real work. 

Perhaps this account should not have been written 
until 1932, after the surrounding school districts shall 
have been consolidated with us, and we have a good 
building combining the features of the best rural high 
schools with those of Sociability Hall, and the school 
grounds with some adjoining lots shall have been con- 
verted into a recreation park; then the whole thing 
could be pronounced a real success. We are just be- 
ginning. Why should not other towns begin? Many 
of them could do a better work than we have done. 

The great difficulty is to secure the long-continued 
residence of citizens who are genuinely zealous for 
such ideals. Much of our success as an organization 
has, without doubt, been due to the energy and enter- 
prise of our first president, the wife of the Presby- 
terian pastor. Think not that there is magic in the 
name Sociability Association to turn the stagnant 
pools of rural community-life into running waters of 
social intercourse. Such magic springs are as rare as 
the mythical fountain of youth. Every healing move- 
ment of the waters must be preceded by some vigor- 
ous stirring. No gravity system of social life will 
work. Surely it is better so, and who knows but that 
these many tasks of seeming thankless service are 
really the things most worth the doing? 



CHAPTER XVII 
THE SCHOOL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 

The Concept of Progress. — Evolution is a generally 
accepted law of the material universe. Everything about 
us that we can observe, either with the naked eye or by 
means of the microscope or telescope, is in motion, and 
is undergoing changes of some sort. Some of these 
changes are in the nature of building up more com- 
plex systems ; others involve the breakdown and decay 
of such systems. The oldest philosophers of an- 
tiquity noticed these constant changes and interpreted 
them as evidences that our world with its inanimate 
and animate objects is slowly evolving, that the face 
of nature as we see it is the result of a development 
from some simpler condition of things. Modern sci- 
ence by its researches has confirmed this view. Not 
that everything is increasing in complexity, for in 
some directions there is evidence of decay and dissipa- 
tion of energy. Heat, for instance, is continually be- 
ing scattered in space, as far as we can see, never 
to be recovered. The animal and plant life of to-day 
is far less rich and varied than it was in certain 
geologic ages of the past. But, on the whole, the 
changes that have occurred and are occurring are in- 
terpreted by the scientist as evolution upward. 

Applied to Human Race. — This concept of develop- 
ment, or progress, is also applied to the human race, 

280 



THE SCHOOL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 

and the problems which there appear are both fasci- 
nating and important. For example, what changes in 
human nature and in human conditions are we to con- 
sider as changes for the better? Civilized man is dif- 
ferent from the savage. Is he, therefore, any better 
off than the savage? While we think we can specify 
many ways in which he has advanced, it is also pos- 
sible to point to phases in which he has declined. Is 
the progress ultimately greater than the decay, and is 
every deterioration offset by greater development in 
other directions? Probably most of us think that it 
is, and yet the question is a complex one, and is by 
no means susceptible of an offhand answer. Some 
thinkers insist that we have reached our maximal de- 
velopment and are now in process of rapid decay. 
The increase in knowledge and in material comfort, 
which some would bring forward as evidences of 
progress, others would mention as the very instru- 
ments and evidences of decline. Manifestly the an- 
swer to the question depends upon the point of view 
and upon the standards we may choose to accept. 

Conditions of Progress. — Then, again, supposing hu- 
man progress to be a fact, what are the agencies, the 
means through which it occurs; what are its condi- 
tions? We think we have discovered certain forces 
which have tended to produce higher and higher types 
of plant and animal forms. Do these forces control 
human development, or are there other influences 
which may supplement the action of these primitive 
forces? Furthermore, we note that the evolution of 
plant and animal life is almost inconceivably slow, so 
slow, in fact, that it was commonly believed until the 
middle of the last century that these forms of life are 
19 281 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

fixed and have always been as they appear to us to- 
day. The question then arises as to whether human 
evolution must always be so slow, or whether it may 
be controlled and accelerated. 

Progress and Social Efficiency. — These are questions 
of far-reaching and practical importance. No discus- 
sion of education for social efficiency would be com- 
plete without some attempt to view it in its relation 
to these broad problems of race- welfare and race-im- 
provement. It is this relationship, in fact, which 
finally gives meaning to the social ideal, for the pro- 
duction of really able men and women is the first step 
toward a better society and toward a better humanity. 

Starting out, then, with such a point of view, let 
us first note that if education for social efficiency is 
to minister to progress it must be thought of in this 
broader relation, as well as with reference to its nar- 
rower and more immediate effects. There is, in fact, 
a danger that we may not be truly successful in work- 
ing out our aim, because of conceiving it in too nar- 
row and isolated a form. Social efficiency, to be gen- 
uine, must be worked out with some reference to its 
ultimate relation to human welfare. 

True, the problem which every teacher faces is im- 
mediate and calls for a more or less narrow and spe- 
cific course of action. If he were to think all of the 
time of race improvement he would miss doing the 
thousand detailed and necessary things that each day 
demands of him. But, even so, his range of vision 
must not be completely limited to specific results, or 
else these will in the end lack the fine adjustment to 
the larger life of which they are only the elements. 
The best worker in any line is one who unites with 

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THE SCHOOL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 

a painstaking appreciation of the minute details of 
his own task a sense of the whole of which his work 
is a part. It is worth while, then, that all who teach 
should try to see in just what ways the great social 
enterprise of education may really contribute to so- 
cial advancement. 

In the first chapter it was stated that the human 
race, in the matter of evolution, stands on a different 
plane from the rest of the animal world. While 
changes and possible improvements of the latter de- 
pend upon the slow action of natural selection, the 
human species, having attained by that means a higher 
type of intelligence, may supplement the chance pres- 
ervation of variations by conscious selection. Natural 
selection does not disappear, but its action may be 
modified, and, by giving thought thereto, the rate 
of change may be greatly increased. 

Importance of Conscious Selection. — This has al- 
ready been established in man's dealings with lower 
orders of life. In ancient times, even, it was known 
to be possible to improve certain plants and animals of 
economic importance by careful breeding. But only 
in the last few decades have the larger possibilities in 
this direction been fully realized. The laws of varia- 
bility and of inheritance, as they have become better 
and better known, have made possible striking and 
rapid improvements in a wide variety of forms of life. 
In this way we have arrived at the notion that the 
same intelligent forethought given to our own species 
could accomplish equally remarkable results. 

Effect of Intelligence. — The action of intelligence 
upon the changes which occur in human society is 
two-fold. It is the means, in the first place, by which 

283 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

useful experience, or, more broadly, culture, may be 
gradually accumulated and preserved. In the second 
place it permits of a higher type of selection than that 
which has ruled in the development of the lower 
forms. Let us examine briefly each of these phases 
of the action of intelligence. 

Progress Through Accumulated Experience. — With 
reference to the first phase, it is evident that man is 
thus able to profit by the mistakes and successes of 
the past. Thus he can, slowly at first, and then more 
rapidly, improve the conditions of his living, and, step 
by step, rise above the level of savagery. He can 
learn to secure and prepare better food, clothing, and 
shelter; he can learn better ways of deciding differ- 
ences of opinion, and thus, in time, avoid the extrava- 
gant and senseless method of physical combat and 
war ; he can master the forces of the world and elimi- 
nate all sorts of wastefulness in connection with his 
use of the resources of nature. He can improve the 
conditions under which he and other men labor. All 
of this he can do simply by his capacity of remem- 
bering, reflecting and profiting by past experiences, 
with no actual change or improvement in his original 
nature. Man, to-day, is not markedly different in in- 
telligence from the man of ancient times, nor even 
from the savage of the present day. He simply knows 
more. Each generation has added a little to the gen- 
eral fund of knowledge. He is possibly, in conse- 
quence, less superstitious, perhaps somewhat more 
kindly, and a little more regardful of the value of 
human life. 

Much of our boasted present-day superiority is due, 
then, to the fact that we stand on the shoulders of 

284 



THE SCHOOL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 

the men who have lived before us. Human intelli- 
gence makes possible the accumulation of culture and 
this is one phase of human progress. The other 
phase, that of the improvement of human nature it- 
self, we purposely leave out of account just at present. 
Supposing that man has attained his maximal devel- 
opment as a human being, there are still vast oppor- 
tunities for his bettering his condition. In no re- 
spect is it likely that he has as yet realized to the 
fullest extent the possibilities of a happy, efficient so- 
cial life. He has made great strides in the mastery 
of nature and in the heaping up of material wealth, 
but this wealth is as yet unevenly distributed, and it 
has, furthermore, been gained by a wasteful disregard 
of the happiness and comfort of large groups of his 
fellow-men. Even if all possessed their quota of 
creature comforts the resulting progress would be 
superficial and undesirable unless it were accompanied 
by an increased opportunity for the expression of 
human nature itself. It is in this latter particular that 
great advances are yet to be made. This phase has 
been relatively ignored in the rapid conquest of the 
material world, but it is, notwithstanding, of far 
greater importance. 

Progress Through Utilizing Latent Resources. — As we 
look abroad upon the large amount of injustice and 
misery in society, we are accustomed to think of prog- 
ress, and particularly of reform, as dependent upon 
the development of a new and radically different hu- 
man nature. The sentiment of Huxley that the best 
thing that could happen to the human race would be 
for it to be swept off the face of the earth by some 
friendly comet, is based on the idea that the existing 

285 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

resources of human nature have been exhausted, that 
man is mostly and hopelessly bad. 

The modern social worker, however, has a different 
point of view. One of the most interesting and hope- 
ful results of the study of human nature is the dis- 
covery that there are fine qualities even in the worst 
of us. The social worker believes that the deficiencies 
in our present-day life are largely due, not to a fun- 
damental lack of finer qualities in human nature, but 
to the failure, thus far, to give these qualities fair 
play. Social reform has ample raw material to start 
with. Savage peoples show astonishing degrees of 
kindliness, hospitality, truthfulness, and justice, along 
with much that is unlovely if not abhorrent. The 
same traits appear in the most unpromising situations 
and among the most unfortunate representatives of 
the civilized races. Tramps, criminals, boys' gangs, 
reveal to the sympathetic observer much that is admir- 
able and much that goes to prove that underneath 
their distorted lives they are fundamentally human, 
and are capable of being actuated by finer motives. 
As Cooley says : "Where there is a little common in- 
terest and activity, kindness grows like weeds by the 
roadside." 

There is, in other words, in all men much fine raw 
material. No one is given over completely to con- 
scious badness. Even the worst reprobate is in some 
degree the victim of circumstances, and is expressing, 
in a distorted manner, qualities of human nature 
which are susceptible of a higher usefulness. Hence, 
we may well say that social progress does not so much 
require a radically new human nature as a better 
utilization of the resources that already exist in men 

286 



THE SCHOOL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 

and women. At least we must start with those re- 
sources and do what we can with them. How to 
make use of human nature, as it exists, how to extend 
the influence of the qualities of kindness, of loyalty, 
of justice, of lawfulness beyond the narrow confines 
of the little circles of family, neighborhood, and city 
ward is a fundamental problem of present-day social 
advancement. 

Such, in brief, is one phase of the question of social 
progress. In summarized form : progress is depend- 
ent upon the conquest and conservation of the material 
world and upon the working out of conditions favor- 
able to the better expression of human life. 

The Office of Education. — With reference to this 
phase, it is clear that education may play a part of 
the greatest importance. As Professor Dewey says : 
"The school is a fundamental means of social prog- 
ress and reform." The simplest of all ways in which 
the school may become such an agency is through its 
function of instruction. Thus the knowledge and 
ideals of the past are preserved in each new genera- 
tion. Of course, the mere transmission of our social 
inheritance to our children would not contribute very 
much to actual progress. If this were all it would re- 
sult in a stationary social order. Such an education is, 
in fact, characteristic of the lower, less-developed 
races. The children are instructed in all things just 
as the fathers were instructed. Questions of better 
and worse are not raised. All that has come down 
from the past is assumed to be good. But, as culture 
slowly accumulates, it becomes less and less possible 
to teach everything. Some things must be selected, 
and, in the long run, phases of a people's culture thus 

287 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

selected to be taught are the better ones. Thus the 
knowledge that is of least worth drops out, the 
modes of behavior that are least desirable are unem- 
phasized, and, instead, the better things are taught. 
Thus by the mere process of selection of what shall 
be the subject-matter of school instruction the level 
of human knowledge and of human behavior is actu- 
ally, though slowly, raised. The rate of improvement 
depends upon the extent to which this selection is 
guided by a definite, conscious purpose. 

The School a Selective Agency. — The school, then, 
at its lowest level of efficiency is something of a sift- 
ing and selective agency, an agency which determines, 
at least in some degree, what shall and what shall not 
be taught to each succeeding generation. And, hap- 
pily for the idealist, the level of efficiency in this re- 
spect is rising more rapidly to-day than at any previ- 
ous period of human history. As one social thinker 
points out, this is a period of remarkable shifting in 
social responsibility. Certain institutions, such as the 
church and the family, seem at present to have less 
influence than they used to have, while the influences 
of other institutions are progressing by leaps and 
bounds. Among these latter are the agencies of pub- 
lic education. The schools are not directly responsi- 
ble for this. They have simply found themselves 
caught in the current of change and of readjustment. 
Heavier duties are yearly being thrust upon them. 
Society is demanding that they train, not alone in a 
narrow, intellectual sense, but that they provide means 
of public recreation; that they give attention to child 
hygiene, that they share a part of the burden of the 
problem of public health; that they provide definite 

288 



THE SCHOOL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 

training for vocations ; thai, they undertake the diffi- 
cult task of securing proper vocational adjustment; 
that they take up and grapple with the vital social 
questions of sexual morality; that they assume large 
responsibility in the general moral training of chil- 
dren. All of these matters were formerly attended 
to with more or less efficiency by the home, by the 
church, and by the world of industry itself. To-day, 
the responsibility for them is shifting to the school. 

To meet these new demands places a heavy strain 
upon the existing machinery of public education. 
Whether it can measure up to the larger duties re- 
mains to be seen. In any case it is significant that 
there is a growing consciousness on the part of so- 
ciety that the deeper questions of social welfare are 
really educational questions. 

In the preceding chapters we have attempted to 
discuss the ways in which the schools are awakening 
to a sense of their new responsibilities. Whether 
they can adequately and completely deal with them or 
not they are at least becoming "mighty engines", to 
use Ross's phrase, "of social progress". We can think 
of all these new phases of public school activity as 
evidences of conscious and systematic selection of 
the better aspects of human culture, which will tend 
to place each new generation a little farther along 
than the preceding one. The school is, at least, a se- 
lected environment, with a selected set of influences 
designed to give children a training in better habits 
and in better ideals than they would pick up inciden- 
tally if left to themselves in the hit-and-miss contact 
with the life about them. It gives them, as far as it 
can, a healthful point of view toward life that will 

289 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

enable them to start out with at least some prospect 
of living efficiently and nobly. 

Significance of These Modern Movements (Every 

one of these modern movements in education is thus 
fraught with great social values. The improvement 
of rural schools, bound up, as it is, with the improve- 
ment of rural life, is one illustration of the influence 
of selection through which better conditions are 
brought to pass. The level of farm life to-day is not 
so high as it should be; the farmer's labor does not 
count for as much as it should, either in material or 
in spiritual satisfaction. Fragmentary and crude 
though present-day efforts in improving rural schools 
may be, they are, nevertheless, efforts to put the boys 
and girls into vital touch with the better ways, and 
to eliminate thereby the less effective modes of farm 
life. The problem is not only to discover better ways, 
but to enable people generally to put into practice the 
better ways already known; to put in the hands and 
into the lives of the many the wisdom of the few. 
Thus the farmer's lad learns improved methods of 
selecting his seeds, of plowing his ground, of fertiliz- 
ing it, and of tending his crops. The girl learns to 
be a better home-maker; both together learn how to 
make the farm home more attractive and comfort- 
able; how to secure healthful recreation; how to be 
more sociable; how to cooperate, as all people need to 
do, in an efficient social life. In all this endeavor the 
better ways of working and of living are selected and 
set before the youth, and thereby a real step is taken 
in social advancement. 

In the cities the same thing holds true. The atten- 
tion given by school authorities to the health of chil- 

290 



THE SCHOOL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 

dren is of the first importance for social progress and 
social efficiency. The development of public play- 
grounds and other means of recreation, the school 
gardens with their opportunities for the cultivation 
of healthful outdoor interests are all means of crowd- 
ing out of the lives of children the untoward and de- 
moralizing influences of modern city life and giv- 
ing the real boy and girl nature a chance to unfold 
properly. The bringing of home and school into a 
more thorough and sympathetic cooperation ; the train- 
ing for vocational efficiency, and the securing of 
proper vocational adjustment are still other phases 
of the operation of those upbuilding, character- form- 
ing influences which exist in our midst, but which 
have to be selected and organized in order that they 
may play the part they should in social improvement. 

Within the school the efforts to develop a healthful 
social spirit through all sorts of voluntary organiza- 
tions and "functions", through pupil-participation in 
school government, through introducing more of the 
social motive into the regular work of study and in- 
struction, and through the actual choice of the sub- 
ject-matter itself, are further illustrations of the ways 
in which selection may operate. 

Choice of Subject-matter. — What we mean by selec- 
tion in the case of subject-matter may be briefly illus- 
trated. Take history for an example. It is not the 
object of ordinary school instruction in this subject 
to train historians, but to give each child a sane and 
helpful point of view for actual life. Hence, the need 
of careful choice in what is taught, not that facts are 
to be covered up or distorted, but that the pupil may 
see things in their right relationships, and that he may 

291 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

appreciate the real forces of human progress and 
their relation to his present life. If historical facts 
were taught indiscriminately he would only be con- 
fused in his vision and he might never see the essen- 
tial things; that is, the things which count for most 
in the long run. With this in view thoughtful teach- 
ers see that elementary history should lay less empha- 
sis upon wars and upon national and race prejudices, 
significant though these may be for the historian, and 
more upon the essential solidarity of human interests, 
more upon the manifold phases of human effort as 
seen in the pioneer life, in the conquest of nature, and 
in industrial and social evolution. The great achieve- 
ments of the past must be admired, but not blindly. 
The imperfections of men and of movements must 
be recognized, not as isolated facts, but that later 
achievement may be more thoroughly appreciated, and 
that courage may be developed to continue the strug- 
gle for more of honesty, of justice, and of fair-play. 
What we have illustrated in the case of history is true 
in greater or less degree, and in varying ways, of 
every other subject of the curriculum. In each there 
is need of selection. 

The School and the Immigrant. — We should not neg- 
lect to recognize that social progress in America is 
intimately bound up with the problem of assimilating 
the people of other lands who are coming in such 
large numbers into our midst. They are for the most 
part sturdy, adventurous people, full of red blood, and 
willing to work, but they are raw material, needing 
training and adjustment along right lines. No one 
agency can do more or is doing more to make valu- 
able Americans of these people than is the public 

292 






THE SCHOOL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 

school. Every phase of the selected influences which 
the school has built up gains in significance an hun- 
dred-fold when it is viewed in connection with the im- 
migrant child. The school is society's main agency 
for bringing him into touch with the best that Ameri- 
can life has to offer. 

Summary. — In ' summary of this section we may 
say that social progress is to be controlled in part by 
consciously attempting to train the children of each 
new generation in the better elements of the life of 
the parents. It is essentially a process of systemati- 
cally taking hold of the ideals held by every com- 
munity but which have, as yet, been only imperfectly 
realized. No community lives in all things as it knows 
it should. Every parent wishes his children to attain 
a higher plane of usefulness than he has himself 
reached. It is just this aspiration, this sense of 
"more beyond", that is the starting point and the op- 
portunity of the school. It tries to keep the children 
from imitating unreservedly everything they see about 
them; it strives to emphasize right modes of behavior; 
it introduces them to the lives of high-minded men 
and women. In the social life of the school com- 
munity they are given experience and practice in 
truthfulness, in justice, and in fair-play, and are 
taught how these ideals must be extended, beyond the 
family, the school, and the playground, into the 
broader and more intricate relations of the world. 
Thus, step by step, these virtues may be more defi- 
nitely realized in the common life of the average man 
and woman, the better usefulness and the finer quali- 
ties which are present, but find as yet only partial ex- 
pression. That the schools do this imperfectly and 

293 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

with many shortcomings does not prove that it is not 
part of their problem. 

The outline thus far presented of the relation of 
education to social progress presents a large program. 
If the individual teacher shrinks before it, let him 
remember that the responsibility for carrying it out 
does not rest upon his shoulders alone, but upon 
those of many thousands of other earnest men and 
women with him. Even though his own opportuni- 
ties are limited he can do a little, and this all the better 
if he has some vision of the larger problem — pro- 
vided, of course, that vision does not frighten him. 

Progress Through Improvement of Human Nature. 
— With the hope that the larger view may stimulate 
rather than discourage, we venture to turn to still 
another phase, one that is more baffling than the pre- 
ceding, but which cannot be ignored if we would see 
our work in all its relationships. This is the problem, 
not of using what we already have in better ways, but 
of securing actual improvement in the human stock 
itself, of attaining higher levels of innate ability, 
higher general capacity to deal with the questions of 
material existence and of living together. The points 
here at issue are far-reaching and complex, and they 
lie, moreover, in large part beyond the field of edu- 
cation, as that is ordinarily understood. And yet, 
in some degree, public education is concerned with 
them. 

As was pointed out in the first portion of the chap- 
ter, the scientist conceives of the evolution of higher 
types of life as dependent upon the appearance, now 
and again, in the history of different forms, of varia- 
tions which prove of advantage in the struggle for 

294 



THE SCHOOL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 

life. Such useful variations in the parent may be 
transmitted by heredity to the offspring. Useful 
adaptations made by an individual in its own lifetime 
are not so transmitted. Hence, the possibility of im- 
proving the innate qualities of any plant or animal 
depends upon the preservation, whenever they appear, 
of these fortunate variations. The extent to which 
lower forms of life may be modified and improved to 
meet human needs has given the scientist a dream 
of human improvement through conscious and wise 
preservation of useful variations in children and in 
men and women. The preservation of these varia- 
tions in the human race has thus far been subject to 
all sorts of chance circumstances, and golden oppor- 
tunities for the absolute betterment of human nature 
have doubtless been lost over and over again. 

The School's Relation to Race Betterment. — Leaving 
out of account many large aspects of this problem, let 
us turn directly to the school. It is the school's privi- 
lege, in theory, at least, to give to each child the train- 
ing he is most fitted for, to develop his native en- 
dowments to the fullest possible extent along socially 
useful lines. To do this it must be able to recognize 
varying abilities and especially those which are su- 
perior or which have any peculiar relation to social 
progress. 

The School and the Backward Child. — Just at pres- 
ent there is great public interest in backward and men- 
tally deficient children. Recent studies in retarda- 
tion reveal the large number of the former in all 
school systems. There are many causes other than 
mental inferiority for this failure of large portions of 
our children to come up to the standard set by the 

295 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

school. One of the causes is lack of a fine adjustment 
of the school to individual needs. Children are treated 
too much in the mass. Standards which are often ar- 
tificial are set up which place a premium upon chil- 
dren of a plastic, receptive disposition. Others who 
have even greater mental ability than these may fail 
to make proper connections with school instruction 
and drop behind. There are also conditions outside 
of school which interfere with the progress of per- 
fectly normal children. But, when all of these things 
are taken into account, it is obvious that there still 
remain a number who are of inferior mentality. That 
both these and the distinctly subnormal and deficient 
must be cared for and trained as far as may be goes 
without saying; but there is a danger of losing a 
proper perspective in the matter. The popular in- 
terest in the training of these children has rested 
largely upon the assumption that they can in some 
way be raised to the level of normal children. Many 
public school systems provide special schools or special 
classes for these subnormal children, in the hope of 
restoring them to the work of the regular classes. 
This is now known to be very largely impossible, at 
least as far as the really deficient pupils are concerned, 
and the effort devoted to training them, aside from its 
purely humanitarian aspects, is valuable only as a 
form of social protection. 

Social Menace of Defective Classes. — Extended and 
careful studies of the last few years have revealed 
the fact that these mentally deficient classes furnish 
a large percentage of our delinquents, paupers, and 
criminals. Anything, therefore, that society can do to 
enable them to earn an honest livelihood, if it is within 

296 



THE SCHOOL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 

their power to do so; to safeguard them from the 
exploitation of the more intelligent classes; and espe- 
cially to prevent their marriage and procreation, is 
highly worth while. Statistics gathered recently by 
a Royal Commission in England and Wales indicate 
that about one person in every 248 of the population 
is feeble-minded. There is every reason to believe 
that the percentage is slowly increasing. These fig- 
ures take account of only the worst cases. If all per- 
sons who are subnormal, that is, the higher grades of 
the mental defectives, were included, the figures 
would be many times greater. 

Dr. Henry H. Goddard, of The Vineland Training 
School for Feeble-minded Children, estimates that two 
per cent, of the children in the public schools are men- 
tally defective to such an extent that they are a men- 
ace to society. In the whole United States he esti- 
mates that there are 350,000 positively feeble-minded 
children, and at least 150,000 more who cannot, with 
safety to society, be allowed to take care of themselves. 
If one is inclined to think that the menace of these de- 
fectives is overestimated because the relative number 
is small, let him consider the further startling dis- 
covery of the Royal Commission of England, which 
studied the problem for four years, namely, that these 
people are increasing at twice the rate of the general 
population. 

It is not hard to understand how this may be true. 
We know with absolute certainty that mental defi- 
ciency of all degrees and of nearly every type is trans- 
missible by heredity and that, while there are other 
causes, the bulk of the rising tide of defectives, with 
its attendant menace of pauperism and crime, is due 
20 297 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

to society's carelessness in permitting feeble-minded 
people to propagate their kind. This tide can never 
be held in check except by systematically preventing 
procreation among such classes. Moreover, if defec- 
tives are unrestrained they procreate faster than the 
normal classes, because they are bound by none of the 
restraints of intelligence that operate with the latter. 
If anything, the lower their mental level, the more 
intense are their animal passions. 

It is, therefore, not only the absolute improvement 
of the human race which is at stake, but the even 
more serious question arises as to whether civilized 
society must not be facing the possibility of an actual 
decline through its failure to prevent itself being con- 
stantly infected by the poison of feeble-mindedness. 
Certainly the rights of society are here greater and 
more imperative than the rights of any individual. 
The responsibility for intelligent action rests in part 
on clear-sighted educational leaders — leaders who are 
no longer blinded by the old groundless optimism that 
all men are born equal, or can be made equal by 
training. 

Opportunity Afforded by Superior Children. — While, 
therefore, we do what we can to save these classes 
from society, and especially to save society from 
them, we must recognize that all effort so expended 
is essentially of the protective sort. We must see to 
it, also, that we realize as fully our responsibility to 
care for and train properly the children of su- 
perior ability. In all likelihood they are as numerous 
as the defectives, and yet they have not hitherto been 
given the attention bestowed on inferior children, nor 
even any special recognition or opportunity in our 

298 



THE SCHOOL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 

school systems. A few cities have recently organized 
classes for their specially gifted children, but by far 
the greatest amount of effort is still expended on the 
deficient children and those of ordinary ability. We 
excuse our action with the plea that the gifted child 
will take care of himself. So he does, sometimes, but 
it is not the part of an intelligent society to leave it 
to pure chance that he shall be able to emerge. In 
fact, the conditions of most schools are distinctly un- 
favorable to his emerging. The attention of the 
teacher is fixed upon the perplexing task of keeping 
the average and the inferior pupils up to grade. The 
supernormal pupil, just because he varies from the 
average, is apt to be regarded as a disturbing factor, 
if not as a nuisance. He is sometimes sternly re- 
pressed, in order that he may be held in line with 
the others. He is often sacrificed to systems of pro- 
motion, and, while we say theoretically that he may 
take care of himself and go ahead as fast as he 
chooses, no adequate provision is made by which he 
may go ahead any faster than his slower moving asso- 
ciates. To be sure a few cities have tried with more 
or less success various plans of grading and promo- 
tion, whereby the brighter pupils may be allowed to 
go ahead at a most rapid pace, but in our country, as 
a whole, the so-called "lock-step" system still pre- 
vails. 

Superior Child Needs Careful Training. — Even if the 
supernormal pupil had no difficulty in taking care of 
himself it would not follow that his own care would 
be wise, nor would it follow that he does not stand in 
serious need of suitable training. His superior abil- 
ity, if left to itself, may develop into almost any eccen- 

299 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 






tricity. He may use it in a thousand ways that are 
detrimental to social welfare. In other words, he 
needs, even more than does the average child, watch- 
ful care and training, that his peculiar endowments 
may be conserved and fitted into the fabric of social 
life, rather than suffer pitiful miscarriage. Further- 
more, energy expended on finding and properly train- 
ing the children of more than ordinary ability will 
yield an incomparably larger return to society gener- 
ally than the same effort expended on those below 
the normal level. 

The fact that our schools are not equipped to deal 
with these children does not make the need for it any 
less real. It is true that the situation is a difficult 
one from every point of view, but if human ability is 
to be increased by any other means than the slow 
and wasteful action of natural selection, this is one 
line of effort to which the school must give its most 
serious attention. 

A Serious Problem. — The problem of selecting and 
conserving superior ability is really a larger one than 
that of discovering here and there a peculiarly gifted 
child. It involves saving, to the fullest extent, ability 
of every sort. There are many fine qualities in even 
average children, which are directly related to human 
progress, which are now disregarded and even sup- 
pressed by the average school. We refer particularly 
to the quality of personal initiative in its various 
forms. All normal children are full of eagerness, full 
of the desire to explore and find out, full of the im- 
pulse to do things for themselves. The ideal of ad- 
justment, of mere receptivity, is remote from all 
healthful child-life. Children need, of course, a cer- 

300 



THE SCHOOL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 

tain amount of adjustment, not as an end in itself, 
but as a means for the fuller exercise of their own 
individual powers along socially useful lines. 

Education as Adjustment Only a Half-truth. — The 
ideal of education as some sort of social adjustment 
widely prevails to-day, but it expresses only a half- 
truth. A broader conception would be social partici- 
pation. We may freely admit that a child who is to 
participate adequately in social life must learn to con- 
form to many social usages. We may also freely ad- 
mit that he would not, if left to his own initiative, 
find out or appreciate properly all the things he should 
learn in order to be a useful man. Our point is rather 
that his initiative and eagerness to act on his own 
account should not be suppressed while he is learning 
necessary adjustments. 

Everywhere about us, in adult society, there is a 
premium placed on inventiveness, on the capacity to 
do old things in new and better ways. In fact, this 
emphasis is one of the characteristics of progressive 
peoples. In lower stages of culture, and especially 
among savage peoples, imitation and conformity to 
type is the prevailing ideal. Such people possibly 
cannot afford to take the risk of trying new ways of 
doing things, lest the experiment prove a failure and 
the whole social body come to grief. The Central 
Australians represent the acme of human adjustment 
to natural conditions. They have not tried to make 
clothes or to construct for themselves any adequate 
shelter from a climate that is often severe. They do 
not till the soil, but simply take what Nature gives 
them, eating roots, fruits, game, and even grubs and 
insects. They accept things as they are, and have 

301 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

learned to endure them, except that endurance is not 
the proper word, from their point of view, for they 
know of nothing else and are therefore quite content. 

When we turn to more progressive branches of the 
race we find large numbers still, who merely conform 
to conditions imposed upon them. There are always 
a greater or less number, however, who are restive 
under all conditions, who are always reaching out 
and apparently striving for fuller self-expression. 
The qualities of perseverance, of energy, of curiosity, 
of eagerness to experiment and to explore, seem to 
lie at the very basis of social progress. 

It is somewhat surprising, then, to find the main em- 
phasis upon imitation in the education of the pro- 
gressive races. The chief concern of adult society 
seems to be that the children should spend most of 
their time acquiring the wisdom and skill of the past. 
We should not criticize this concern if it had coupled 
with it a clearer recognition that this is only the be- 
ginning of the process, not an end in itself, but a 
means to an end. The most precious heritage of pro- 
gressive races is personal initiative, and their most 
serious problem is how to conserve and direct this 
initiative wisely. Undirected, it is of no more value 
than unconfined steam; it is mere vaporing, which 
brings only discredit upon itself. 

The child studies certain aspects of the culture of 
past generations, not merely to absorb it, or to be- 
come, as it were, a receptacle in which to preserve 
that culture intact, as the arts and crafts of other 
times are preserved in museums for the inspection 
of the curious. He studies rather that he may use, 
that he may have better tools for the expression of his 

302 



THE SCHOOL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 

initiative, that his impulses may avoid failures and 
take advantages of past success. 

The Right Emphasis. — The emphasis in a truly pro- 
gressive society must then be upon a wise cultivation 
of the individual capacities of the child for initiative 
rather than upon his simply acquiring in passive fash- 
ion the culture of the past. This is a broad generali- 
zation which must be interpreted with due recognition 
of varying conditions. Children vary in their indi- 
vidual capacity for initiative. Some persons will at- 
tain the most useful lives when they simply follow 
unswervingly in the steps of their fathers. More- 
over, the importance of cultivating initiative in pro- 
gressive societies does not rest upon the narrow con- 
ception of education as merely for the making of 
great leaders. It is true, however, that the qualities 
for leadership, for which there is such a large place 
in the modern world, will be fostered and developed 
by such a type of education. But, while all cannot 
be leaders in various lines of industrial, professional, 
political, and social activity, all do need, in wider or 
narrower spheres, the capacity of self-direction and 
the alertness to meet and take advantage of new con- 
ditions. A part of the poverty and crime of modern 
society is due to the rapid changes in the conditions of 
life. The pauper is not merely the inefficient one; 
he is often one who was by his training fitted or ad- 
justed to a social and industrial order which had 
changed ere he had established himself. He could 
not readjust himself to fit the new conditions, and, 
hence, dropped down into the ranks of the incapable. 

A Slow Process. — The task of raising the general 
level of human capacity is not one that can be ac- 

303 



EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EFFICIENCY 

complished quickly or easily. If the higher branches 
of the race are not held in check by the subtle poison 
of feeble-mindedness, it is possible that they may rise 
still higher by the slow action of natural selection. 
The rate of this rise, at the best slow, can, however, 
be increased by intelligent and concerted action on the 
part of the more efficient. For one thing the child of 
superior ability, when he appears, must be given his 
full chance to grow, to work, and to have healthy off- 
spring, the only avenue by which his native endow- 
ments may be preserved to the race. Furthermore, 
the valuable traits of all normal children must be rec- 
ognized and nurtured. In this latter need there is 
the largest practical opportunity for teachers every- 
where. Not all schools, for a long time to come, will 
be able to recognize and train in special classes the 
"gifted" pupils, but all schools can begin at once to 
give freer scope to those native endowments of aver- 
age boys and girls which count at least a little in abso- 
lute human progress. Conscious selection with ref- 
erence to breeding higher efficiency must not stop with 
conserving the types which are strikingly superior. 
Everything of value, even though it be minute, must 
be saved and used. When the teacher once realizes 
how closely related to progress are these qualities of 
self-reliance, of eager curiosity, of initiative, he will 
find more and more ways to make his school favor- 
able to their expression and growth. A truly pro- 
gressive society, especially in a democracy, depends 
upon all its members with properly socialized motives 
having the opportunity to use what powers they have 
to their full extent. 



304 



INDEX 



Addams, Jane, quoted, 121. 

Adjustment, education as, 
a half truth, 17, 301. 

Agronomy, 51. 

Aim of education among 
primitive people, 6; social 
character of, 11 f. 

Animal husbandry and 
dairying, 52. 

Arithmetic for country 
schools, 46 f. 

Australian type of educa- 
tion, 5. 



in 



rural 



Babcock tester 

schools, 58. 
Backward child, school and, 

295- 
Baganda, 2. 

Bailey, L. H., 46. 

Bloomfield, Meyer, 

217, 219, 224. 
Boston, home and 

news-letter, 102 ; 

and school visitor, 
Boys' and girls' farm clubs, 

59; social value of, 61 f ; 

in Nebraska, 62; full 

value as yet unappreciated, 

63- 



quoted, 

school 
Home 
107. 



Carney, Mabel, referred to, 

41 ; quoted, 46 f. 
Character-forming influence 

of failure, 256. 
Chemistry for rural schools, 

Child study, a suggestion 
for, 132. 

City, pull of, 31. 

Civic life, training for, in 
socialized school, 160 f. 

Clark, Miss Lotta A., on 
group teaching of history, 
246. 

Clubs and gangs, develop- 
ment of, 143; farm boys, 

^59- 

Colebrook Academy, course 
of study, quoted, 51 f. 

Collective life, controlling 
force of, 158; effort, 253. 

Compulsory school attend- 
ance and incentives, 128 f. 

Consolidation of schools, 
advantages of, 38 f. ; must 
be real country schools, 39. 

Conversation, educational 
value of, 85. 

Cooley, C. H., quoted, 114, 
144. 



305 



INDEX 



Cooperation of school and 
community, 90 f. ; basis of 
economy of effort, 92, 96, 
177; and character devel- 
opment, 257. 

Country schools, see Rural 
Schools. 

Course of study adapted to 
rural needs, 44 f . ; 51 f . 

Curriculum, social ideal in, 
177; relation of, to chil- 
dren's interests, 189. 

Dean, A. W., quoted, 210. 

Delinquency and the home, 
76 f. ; play as a preventive 
of, 120; work a preven- 
tive, 203. 

Dewey, J., quoted, 138, 
1931.; 287. 

Economic development pre- 
cedes social, 17. 

Education, a social process, 
1 ; illustrated by savage 
peoples, 1 ; relation of 
origin to imitation, 2; 
beginnings of formal, 4; 
in primitive society an in- 
terest of whole tribe, 5 ; 
aim and social need for 
primitive education, 7; 
education and evolution, 
7; more than imparting 
knowledge, 10; in the 
home, 15; in pioneer com- 
munity, 26; as life, 138; 



larger conceptions of, 262; 
as adjustment, a half- 
truth, 301. 

Effort, motivated, 133. 

Elementary social ideals, 15. 

Eliot, Dr. C. W., on self- 
government, 162; motive 
of life career, 200. 

Endurance of primitive boy 
tested, 4. 

Evolution and education, 7, 
280 f. 

Excursions, class, 207. 

Facts, exaggerated impor- 
tance of, in education, 244. 

Failure, positive value of, 
256. 

Farm carpentry, 51; black- 
smithing, 52. 

Field, Miss Jessie, work of, 

57, 63. 

Foght, W. H., quoted, 40 f. 

Forestry, 53. 

Formal instruction, begin- 
nings of, 4; function of, 

4- 

Gang virtues, 159. 

"General training," inade- 
quacies of, 201. 

Geography for the country 
school, 47; socialization 
of, 192, 242. 

Goddard, Dr. H. H., on 
prevalence of defectives 
in public schools, 297. 



306 



INDEX 



Grammar and language, in 
country school, 46. 

Group, influence of, in 
learning, 234; group work, 
value of, 236; higher 
types of, 239; character- 
forming influences of, 
252 f., 258 f. ; a practicable 
scheme, 261. 

Gulick, Dr. L. H., quoted, 
122. 

"Hesperia movement," 36. 

History and civics for 
country schools, 49 f . ; so- 
cialized history, 194. 

Home and neighborhood in 
education, 15; pioneer 
school and, 27. 

Home life, educational in- 
fluence of, 71 f. ; respon- 
sibility of, for moral train- 
ing, J2.', relation of, to 
child growth, 73 f. ; men- 
aced by modern industry, 
75; by "social duties," 76 
spiritual unity of, 78 
value of activities in, 81 
conversation in, 85 f. 
sex-instruction in, 87 
sympathy needed, 88. 

Home and school, close re- 
lation of, 94; associations, 
97; function of, 98; re- 
sults, 100; various meth- 
ods, 102; relation of, 
to educational efficiency, 



104 f. ; national organiza- 
tion of, 106; home and 
school visitors, 107; sum- 
mary, 108. 
Human nature, improve- 
ment of, in relation to 
progress, 294. 

Ideals and practical work, 
close relation of, 182. 

Imitation, at basis of prim- 
itive education, 2; too 
great emphasis on, in 
modern education, 302. 

Imitativeness of savages, 2 f. 

Incentives, 123 f. ; social 
basis of, 124; a recent 
problem, 126; relation of, 
to compulsory school at- 
tendance, 128; lack of, due 
to inadequate educational 
concepts, 130. 

Individual instruction, place 
of, 232 f. 

Individualistic ideals, courses 
of, 12; need of new point 
of view, 14. 

Individual capacities, 303. 

Initiative, development of, 

303- 
Instruction and personality, 

237- 
Interest, basis of, 132 f. ; 
immediate interests, 187; 
vocational, 199; perma- 
nence of early interests, 
200, 



307 



INDEX 



Irresponsibility, supposed, 
of youth, 134 f. 

Jastrow, Joseph, referred to, 

238. 
John Swaney Consolidated 

School, 40 f. 
Junior Republic, 203. 

Kafirs, imitativeness of, 3. 
Kennard, Beulah, quoted, 

116. 
JKern, O. J., quoted, 65. 
Kerschensteiner, Dr. G., 

quoted, 204, 211. 
Kidd, Dudley, quoted, 3. 

Leadership in play, 117; of 
teachers, 66. 

Learning socially condi- 
tioned, 236; as personal 
intercourse, 241, 243. 

Libraries for country 
schools, 64. 

Los Angeles, parent-teacher 
associations, 102. 

McAndrew, Dr. W., quoted, 

178. 
McLinn, C. B., quoted, 154. 
Manhattan "school city," 

172 f. 
Massachusetts Industrial 

Commission, 217. 
Mead, G. H., quoted, 242. 
Methods of instruction and 

the social ideal, 232. 
Motivation and social life, 

136. 



National Congress of Moth- 
ers, 101. 

Nature study in country 
schools, 48. 

Nebraska boys' and girls' 
farm clubs, 62. 

Neighborliness, need of, 
266. 

New York schools, a plan 
of self-government in, 
166 f. 

Parent-teacher associations, 
99. 

Perry, C. A., quoted, 264, 
265. 

Pittsburgh playgrounds, 
119 f. 

Play for the country, 6y f . ; 
social value of play, 109; 
playground movement, 
no; and education, in; 
attention to, needed, 112; 
basis of social ideals, 114; 
supervision needed, 115 f; 
democratic influence of, 
118; in Pittsburgh, 119!; 
in Chicago, 121 ; relation 
of, to delinquency, 120. 

Practical applications of 
school subjects, 184 f; in- 
terest of children in, 188. 

Progress, social, 280; con- 
ditions of, 281 ; compared 
with animal evolution, 
280; relation of, to educa- 
tional problems, 282; uti- 



308 



INDEX 



Hzation of latent re- 
sources in human nature a 
factor in, 285; selective 
action through the school, 
291 ; dependent upon im- 
provement in human na- 
ture, 294; retarded by de- 
fective classes, 295 ; rela- 
tion of, to superior ability, 
298 f . 
Pupil-government, see Self- 
government. 

Reading in country schools, 
45 ; socialized reading, 
190. 

Recreation in country, 67. 

Responsibility, habit of 
personal, 213 ; not culti- 
vated in ordinary school 
exercises, 255. 

Road building, 53. 

Rollo books, 83. 

Roscoe, quoted, 2. 

Royal Commission on fee- 
ble-mindedness, 297. 

Rural depletion, 29 f; boys 
and girls educated away 
from country, 33 f ; signs 
of an awakening, 34; co- 
operation needed, 34 f; 
lines of improvement, 
35 f; consolidation of 
schools, 38 f; real country 
schools, 39; course of 
study adapted to, 44 f; 
need of trained teachers, 



56 f; possibilities for one- 
room school, 57; Miss 
Field's work, 57; adapta- 
tion to country needs, 
23 ; a new course of 
study, 45-55 ; rural econ- 
omy, 64. 
Russell, J. E., quoted, 196 f, 
205 f. 

St. Louis Supt. of Schools, 
quoted, 203. 

School, a social institution, 
7, 139; self-government 
in, 158 f; value for civic 
training, 161 ; in pioneer 
community, 24; social 
forces in school, 240; and 
immigrant, 292; a selec- 
tive agency, 118, 288; 
one-sided character of, 
179 f; need of social mo- 
tives and methods in, 180; 
and backward child, 295. 

"School city" in Manhattan, 
a, 172. 

"School Citizens' Commit- 
tee," 175. 

Scott, C. A., on self-or- 
ganized groups, 253. 

Scudder, M. T., quoted, 68. 

Selection and progress, 283, 
288, 291. 

Self-dependence, cultivation 
of, 255. 

Self-government, 162; ques- 
tions at issue, 163; based 



309 



INDEX 



on sense of social unity, 
164; success dependent on 
sympathy of teacher, 165 ; 
not mere pretence, 166; in 
New York, 166; prepara- 
tion of pupils essential to 
success, 168. 

Sex-instruction in home, 87. 

Social and cooperative so- 
cieties in rural schools, 59. 

Social basis of incentives, 
125, 136. 

Social forces in mental de- 
velopment, 239; in school 
work, 240. 

Social groups, rudimentary, 

143 f- 

Social life of school in rela- 
tion to social ideal, 145 ; 
various aspects of, 146; 
social "functions," 147. 

152, 153- 

Social education needful, 
148; growing recognition 
of, 156 f. 

Social solidarity, aim of 
primitive education, 6. 

Social aim, 11 f; must be 
workable, 19. 

Social adjustment, an inade- 
quate educational ideal, 
17, 301; efficiency, 19; 
basis of, 177; relation 
of vocational interest to, 
204. 

Social ideals, elementary, 
15; more adequate ones 



needed, 18; in country, 22, 

33- 

Social life, increasing com- 
plexity of, 16. 

Social progress, 280. 

Social centers, modern need 
for, 262; relation of, to 
schools, 264 ; underlying 
principles, 265 ; spread of 
idea, 267; in West 
Branch, la., 268 f; in pio- 
neer schools, 2y, 59; in 
modern rural schools, 65 f. 

Social menace of defectives, 
296 f . 

Socialization of curriculum, 
183, 197 f, 199; condition 
of, 184 f, 186; of reading, 
192; of writing, 192; of 
geography, 192; of his- 
tory, 194. 

Spencer and Gillen, quoted, 
6. 

Students' Aid Committee of 
New York City, 212. 

Superior children, responsi- 
bility of society for, 298 f, 
304; need of training, 
299; serious problem of, 
300. 

Teachers as leaders, 66. 
Thorndike, E. L., referred 

to, 200. 
Thrift, lesson of, 82. 
Tolstoy, Count, referred to, 

123. 



310 



INDEX 



Vocational guidance, social 
importance of, 219; con- 
ditions of success, 220; in 
New York, 221; in Bos- 
ton, 222; beginnings of, in 
grades, 224; appeal to 
business men, 223; voca- 
tional record cards, 224 f; 
sample of Vocation Bu- 
reau's record of an occu- 
pation, 127-130. 

Vocational interests, early 
appearance of, 199 f; re- 
lation of, to elimination 
from school, 200; social 
significance of, 201 f. 

Vocational education begun 
in the elementary grades, 



205 ; developed in upper 
grades, 209; New York 
plan, 210; character- form- 
ing influence of, 211-215; 
compulsory, 218. 

Ward, E. J., on social cen- 
ters, 262. 

"Wasted years," 216. 

Weaver, E. W., quoted, 213. 

Welling, Richard, quoted, 
169, 171, 175. 

West Branch (la.) Social 
Center, 268 ff. 

Writing, Socialization of, 
192. 



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